Author Topic: Even the big boys have their failures (Read 387 times)

Titantornado · « **on:** July 27, 2006, 03:24:04 AM »

Pretty sickening mess they got there.

http://www.channeloklahoma.com/video/4461310/detail.html

hiker · « **Reply #1 on:** July 26, 2006, 11:15:16 PM »

somthing about the war on terror

wooferhound · « **Reply #2 on:** July 27, 2006, 02:18:36 AM »

"How can a wind turbine blow down when there is no wind out there" ?

The Crazy Noob · « **Reply #3 on:** July 27, 2006, 02:20:55 AM »

The way I understand it is that a brake failed and the blades went twice as fast (in a 5mph wind!) and hit the tower.

I would like to offer myself to clean up the bits and pieces (and take them with me :-D )

asheets · « **Reply #4 on:** July 27, 2006, 10:13:16 AM »

I'm not sure that's the best place to put a wind gen... One of my former meteorology colleagues does his tornado hunting in that area...

sPuDd · « **Reply #5 on:** July 28, 2006, 02:18:14 AM »

Good to see such professional & balanced reporting in the US.

Hmmm, a wind turbine fell down. Who should we talk to about it?

The owners? The engineers? No no no. Two old guys in a dinner....

Yep, they even know where the UFO is kept in Area 51 !

:-)

brushycreek0 · « **Reply #6 on:** July 28, 2006, 03:46:02 AM »

You mean sort of like this one?

Titantornado · « **Reply #7 on:** July 28, 2006, 05:07:23 AM »

Ha, whoops! Need more concrete. Ya think DanB is starting to worry if he has enough in his holes? ;-)

In all actuallity though, that doesn't look like a very well engineered foundation. (obvious now, eh?) I would have thought there would have been some deep anchoring on a monster tower like that. Not just a glob of concrete on the surface.

dinges · « **Reply #8 on:** July 28, 2006, 06:12:14 AM »

You know, I was going to write exactly the same: that that fundation looked mighty small. Until I realized, well, it's kind of obvious now, isn't it

They seem to have just cast a flat plate of concrete, of small size. Ah well, hope they have learned their lesson. And it makes me wonder, whether that turbine in the background is of the same size & type, and whether it has the same fundation...

Titantornado · « **Reply #9 on:** July 28, 2006, 07:12:45 AM »

Yea, agreed. Even more odd is the fact that there doesn't appear to be a stone bed layed out below it. Looks that maybe there was some sort of filter fabric (still stuck to the concrete in the picture) that was layed out directly on top of the soil!?!

I'm not sure how an engineer would have ever considered topsoil a suitable base.

I was thinking the same thing about the other turbines too.

SmoggyTurnip · « **Reply #10 on:** July 28, 2006, 08:01:51 AM »

Looks to me that the concrete sheared off because there is no soil on the concrete on the tower.

There is probably more concrete in the ground just can't see it in the pic.

Maybe there was too much time left between pours or something like that.

.

Don Cackleberrycreations · « **Reply #11 on:** July 28, 2006, 09:44:40 AM »

If thats the case looks like someone screwed up on the rebar placement.

SmoggyTurnip · « **Reply #12 on:** July 28, 2006, 10:40:24 AM »

Maybe it's a tilt down tower.

.

powerbuoy · « **Reply #13 on:** July 28, 2006, 11:32:07 AM »

I saw a report from Europe (long time ago) don't have the link no more ... there were more then a hundred failures posted ...I guess especially in the beginning it happened quite often.

Weird is that there was no wind at the point in time when the unit toppled, so whatever it is that they leaked to the press ...it's probably bull. it would be nice to get more details on what happened, but:

The comment about the news casters is so true ... story story, ...fast fast ... let's interview some folks in a diner ... and feed some bull to the masses.

This is probably how the old folks were approached:

Anchor: "So you saw somebody with a GUN shooting at the turbine ...?

Older guy: "No, I did not say that, I said the turbine probably lost a bolt ...

Anchor: "So, you saw a guy with a GUN loosen some bolts at the turbine ...?

Older guy "No, No ... I believe the turbine just toppled over ...

Anchor: "Falling on the guy with a GUN?" ...

Our media on a scale of 1 thru 10 .... -3 ...

powerbuoy · « **Reply #14 on:** July 28, 2006, 11:46:43 AM »

Hey ...found the accident report and uploaded it to my file section ...

its called: Accidents_20_Jan2006.pdf

You'll be amazed how many are in there ...

Powerbuoy

wiredwrong · « **Reply #15 on:** July 28, 2006, 01:13:25 PM »

I think this is the same one that fell back in may of this year I posted about it then

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2005/5/13/12819/8541

Titantornado · « **Reply #16 on:** July 28, 2006, 02:23:29 PM »

I wondered the same thing, but after blowing up the picture, there is no sign of concrete in the ground, just a pile of dirt it mounded up when it fell. Also, there appears to be standing water in the background on the left side of the picture. I'd say there's a good chance this happened during a heavy rain, and washed any soil off of the bottom of the pad. Considering the direction of fall, rain would have been blown against the bottom of the pad. And like Don says, where's the rebar? No, I believe that's the whole and complete foundation attached to that tower.

dinges · « **Reply #17 on:** July 28, 2006, 02:34:00 PM »

An evil black gun, of course. Fully automatic. Assault rifle. Preferably Russian made. Or perhaps one of them black Glocks that you can slip past a metal detector.

<groan>

powerbuoy · « **Reply #18 on:** July 28, 2006, 04:17:16 PM »

Randy ...you are correct ... the file I uploaded describes accidental death and injuries of individuals, that's not what I had in mind.

I had another one that described toppled towers, broken blades and so on ...

I should have read over the paper before screaming "here it is" ...

My fault and apologies,

Powerbuoy

Chiron · « **Reply #19 on:** July 28, 2006, 08:54:43 PM »

Yikes!

Had to look up the page on FPLE's website for that site, thought maybe they had V90s or something.

http://www.fplenergy.com/portfolio/contents/weatherford.shtml

I used to work on a wind farm for FPl http://www.fplenergy.com/portfolio/contents/lake_benton.shtml

That's my ex in the foreground the old water-pumper in the pic was still in use as of 2 years ago and as far as I know still is.

The Z750s at LBII have survived 160+MPH winds, how much higher we don't know, the anemometer failed at that point (the anemometer was the only damage to that turbine BTW). The GE 1.5 site next to ours had recorded 140+MPH winds with no serious damage.

Personaly I can't see any way a brake failure with a 5MPH wind could bring down a turbine. A brake failure would assume the blades oversped to the point of failure, basicaly launching a 90' lawn dart and the vibration from the remaining 2 blades moving that fast bringing the tower down. This has happened in the past but usualy because of a lightning strike on a blade with no lightning protection. There was one in Holland a while back but that was a totaly different design of turbine and caused by human error.

The GE 1.5 was developed using the technology from the Zond 750s at the LBII site. I'm familiar with the GE 1.5 and there's only 2 ways I know of that they could overspeed to the point of destruction.

Sabotage. (Yes, I could set one up to self-destruct but it would have to be done from the nacell and dead-calm unless I was feeling suicidal)
The high speed pinion or intermediate gears breaking so the hub was no longer tied to the gen and brake. The blade pitch control system would also have to fail at the same time.

I'm not trying to say the turbine didn't fall but the facts as given in the news reports don't add up.

powerbuoy · « **Reply #20 on:** July 29, 2006, 10:35:32 AM »

Fact is that the news anchor could not provide any facts ...

spinner · « **Reply #21 on:** August 08, 2006, 11:48:13 AM »

imagine that...DUH another govt failure multiplied by ? reporting

remember they are the same ones that built that megawatt monster eggbeater(?) at their test (Scandia, i think) site in such a way that it is too expensive to fix because, as the story goes, they never figured ease of making repairs into the design

spinner

mikemotorbike · « **Reply #22 on:** August 31, 2006, 10:01:03 AM »

Picture including the stairs is a nice touch - a stairway to a heaven no longer attainable.

Does the mention of 'breaks' also suggest a connection, via metaphore -"put the breaks on this project!"?.

Reminds me of Bush falling off his Segway...coincidence? Elec vehicles would threaten gas ones; and by extension, Bush oil.

Grind up them Ford Electric Vehicles quick! (Ford leased experimental EVs literally ground up after lease expiry)

News:

Author Topic: Even the big boys have their failures (Read 387 times)