Author Topic: The turbine is up and flying  (Read 3040 times)

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Boondocker

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The turbine is up and flying
« on: September 10, 2007, 12:05:57 AM »







The tower construction turned out to be a feat onto itself.   Assembly of tower was done deliberately slow and methodical.  Safety is a priority, serious injury could occur if anything went wrong.  Walk around inspections, with two people, were performed before any lifts.


Ahead of time, my Father had the anchors and base plate in place.   They were well laid out.  The left and right anchors aligned straight through the base centerline on the same plane.  This was accomplished by shooting the elevation using a transit and tight strings.  The anchors are set in approximately 4' deep in a 3'x3' pad of concrete.


The tower is made using 4.25" scheduled 10 galvanized pipe.  Below is the gin pole and first section of pipe rigged.  





Guyed wires were attached to the first tower section and the gin pole tackle put into place.  The gin pole tackle consist of four pulleys.   At this stage the tower section was leveled, the base plate anchor nuts tighten with the gin pole directly over its anchor, and the gin pole guide ropes tied on.  On this initial lift, line slack remained constant; confirming the anchor points were properly placed.


Note: A good pair of cable cutters are really helpful.  Chiseled cut the cable once, then borrowed a pair of cutters from a friend.


Next the pipes were sectioned together using coupling inserts and guy wires clamped on.





No photos were taken while the tower was being raised.  All attention was given to the task on hand.  It went smoothly without a hitch.  The tractor power was kept at nearly idle while pulling.  





The tower cable is terminated at the base.  Three phase is wired to the battery shed via buried conduit.  Grounding wire is buried outside the conduit.








Grounding:    

The tower is grounded, as well as, each anchor with an eight foot rod driven down beside the concrete.  Another rod is at the battery shed.   All of the ground rods are connected together to create a "Net".   The ground wire is buried approximately two and half feet deep.   Two lighting arrestors are installed.  One arrestor is on the 3 phase lines, and a second on the DC end.





The tower and turbine were put to the test early.  The afternoon following the turbine was in the air, a cold front came through with reported 30 to 40 mph gust.  


The turbine would hold between 200 and 300 watts in the winds before furling.   Once the turbine was completely furled, the output dropped off to nothing.  I did observe a few momentary spikes as high as 600 watts.










Base on feed back on a previous entry, a different tail was made which was lighter.  The thrust force to yaw the rotor was reduced to 18 lbs.   I'm fairly confident the stator will easily hold up at the present tail weight.  In the future will be upgrading the battery bank.  As of now, when the wattage goes above 150 watts, the voltage increased enough for the diversion control to begin dumping.  So I don't see the sense of capturing more power just to dump it.


Blade noise could only be heard when a large gust came along and the turbine yawed quickly to furl.  The alternator makes a slight low tone humming when the output increases, but nothing I consider distracting.


Braking was not a problem.   The blade stopped quickly with just two phases shorted out.





I would like to thank everyone on this forum that I was able to learn from and draw information.  Especially those who took time to answer questions; the first being   defining "Two-in-Hand".





The deer like the new wind turbine too.

« Last Edit: September 10, 2007, 12:05:57 AM by (unknown) »

etownlax

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Re: The turbine is up and flying
« Reply #1 on: September 09, 2007, 06:13:32 PM »
It looks great... Looks like you really did go through everything methodicly. Nice set-up.


What Diameter is the turbine?


-Randy

« Last Edit: September 09, 2007, 06:13:32 PM by etownlax »

Boondocker

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Re: The turbine is up and flying
« Reply #2 on: September 09, 2007, 07:25:11 PM »
Nine feet
« Last Edit: September 09, 2007, 07:25:11 PM by Boondocker »

harrie

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Re: The turbine is up and flying
« Reply #3 on: September 09, 2007, 07:54:37 PM »
Looks very nice, you mentioned cable cutter, I think the best way to cut cable is with a acytlene torch, just melt it off, do not cut it off using the air, that way the ends are melted together, and will not fray. Thanks for sharing.speaking of deer, the MN. DNR, are allowing residents to shoot 5 deer this year, I think they are nuts!!, or need the money to pay for their mismanagement of our resourses.
« Last Edit: September 09, 2007, 07:54:37 PM by harrie »

DanB

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Re: The turbine is up and flying
« Reply #4 on: September 09, 2007, 08:27:37 PM »
Yes - the torch is a nice way too.  I usually find that I have mig welder at the site when we build towers - mig welders (or probably any welder I suppose) do a nice job of cutting cable and - like the torch, they don't leave sharp little wires to poke your fingers on!  
« Last Edit: September 09, 2007, 08:27:37 PM by DanB »
If I ever figure out what's in the box then maybe I can think outside of it.

coldspot

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Re: The turbine is up and flying
« Reply #5 on: September 09, 2007, 08:28:20 PM »
Very nice set up you have there!!!!!!!!!!

My hats off to you.

I wish I was that far but lack so many things...,  :(

I'm glad you posted some tower info, I'm working on a small one now and until I get a coupling figured out for the change in pipe size, no real size numbers here at home, I have to build 10 miles away,{Yes, that more than SUCKS!! Big Time!!}, But the pipe is going from 3" to 2", schedule 40 I think, at the 25' height for this switch, then if I figure out a way to couple my 2" ones together I could get to around 60-70'.

So anyway,

" the pipes were sectioned together using coupling inserts",

I googled that and am still searching it for the pic or what ever to let me understand how that works. Did you happen to take any pictures of that part of the work??

GREAT work you have done!!!!

« Last Edit: September 09, 2007, 08:28:20 PM by coldspot »
$0.02

Nando

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Re: The turbine is up and flying
« Reply #6 on: September 09, 2007, 09:58:25 PM »
Boondocker:


Congratulations for a job well done with the proper preparations to insure safety.


The lighting arrestors should have the shortest possible connections, specially to ground, any length will be shown as an inductance which allows the spike of lightning to produce a high voltage and may reduce the arrestor capacity to a minimum and allowing excessive voltage build up.


Also, the ground wire to be as thick as possible to reduce the inductance to a minimum.


FOR HARRIE:


Some states may have excessive number of deers which overload the area supplies for them, to instead of culling them, the hunters are allowed to get additional animals, it is a sound deer population management.


Nando

« Last Edit: September 09, 2007, 09:58:25 PM by Nando »

chadking

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Re: The turbine is up and flying
« Reply #7 on: September 10, 2007, 01:19:39 AM »
Excellent job!  It looks like you took your time and did it right.  Good luck on it producing power for a long time to come.
« Last Edit: September 10, 2007, 01:19:39 AM by chadking »

Flux

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Re: The turbine is up and flying
« Reply #8 on: September 10, 2007, 01:36:50 AM »
Nice work.


I am pleased to see that you have managed to get the furling working on the safe side.


Not sure what wind speed you are actually furling at, but I have a feeling that you are running well stalled. You may find that adding a bit of resistance in the line will let that 300W figure come up quite a lot at the furling point.


If you have all the power you need now then that is great, but if you want to try for a bit more later then I think you may find that letting the speed rise a bit may give you quite a lot more out and still let it furl safely at about 600W.


Not sure what voltage you are running or what line resistance you have, but unless you have made the tail drastically lighter than normal it sounds as though it may be well stalled. Keeping it stalled is very safe and very quiet so if you are happy with the low output then it is the way to go. Better matching does lead to extra blade noise, but a reasonable rise in speed may give a lot of extra output for only a small noise increase.


Flux

« Last Edit: September 10, 2007, 01:36:50 AM by Flux »

feral air

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Re: The turbine is up and flying
« Reply #9 on: September 10, 2007, 09:54:33 AM »
How tall is it? That's insane! Holy cow. Amazing work!


I just realized I'm so taken aback that I started typing in two-word sentences.


Breathtaking achievement. There's another. Shoot me now. Phew, broke the cycle. Steadily increasing word count, yay!

« Last Edit: September 10, 2007, 09:54:33 AM by feral air »

SparWeb

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Re: The turbine is up and flying
« Reply #10 on: September 10, 2007, 10:00:52 AM »
That is a fantastic set-up.  It also looks like you are well above the trees with that tower (60 feet? I can't see if you wrote its height).  Does it look like a soggy noodle as you raise it?  Mine does.

Congratulations, too, for doing the extra work for the extra safety precautions.
« Last Edit: September 10, 2007, 10:00:52 AM by SparWeb »
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wooferhound

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Re: The turbine is up and flying
« Reply #11 on: September 10, 2007, 11:14:24 AM »
How tall is the tower ?

How wide are your anchor points ?


Looks to me like your top guy wires are A Lot Less than 45 degrees angle

I'm thinking that you need to add guy wire anchors out to the point that you get a 45 degree angle on the top wires.

« Last Edit: September 10, 2007, 11:14:24 AM by wooferhound »

Boondocker

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Re: The turbine is up and flying
« Reply #12 on: September 10, 2007, 04:19:12 PM »
Thank you all for your feedback and support.


Coldspot,


Look in my diary in the "Tower Parts" entry.   I did not snap a pic of the coupling inserts.  However, they look just like the gin pole end and tower stub bottom which slide into the pipe.  The couplings consist of 4' section of 4" 14ga SS tube, bisected with a flange tack welded in place.   To make a snug fit I put collars next to the flange  and ends of the tube.  The collars are 1" length of 4" tube cut open the slide over outside of the tube.    Pipe is normally defined by inside diameter while tubing the outside diameter; This may be  causing you some confusion.


SparWeb,


At first with the tower lowered when the left and right guy wires were not attached it was a little noddley.   Blocked the tower sections and made few adjust to the guyed wires coming down from the gin pole to get the column fairly straight.   Checked the top of the tower so that it was evenly positioned between the left and right anchors.  Next attached the left and right guys, adjusting the tensions so the sag in the cables were close.  Once the left and right guys were in place the tower became ridged.  There was hardly any bow in the tower while raising.  I believe the snug 4' insert coupling helped.


Wooferhound,


The tower is 84' feet high.  Anchors are 24' from the base.  As a "general guide" I used the following link as a reference:  


http://www.abundantre.com/ARE_Short_Twr_Install_Manual_080106_with_DWGs.pdf


The close anchors points will put added stress on the anchors, cables, and tower column to buckle.  The close anchors are a concern.  The statics forces on the guyed wire are 5x under breaking tensile when lifting loads are parallel to the ground.  In the process of dusting off my old books and figuring out the column buckling forces using Euler Theory.   I have a colleague that is a structural type P.E.  Will ask him to check my calculations.  If not in the comfort zone, will plant additional anchors spaced out farther.


Harrie,


The field behind the turbine is a deer food plot.  Could get into a separate discussion on Quality Deer Management (QDM), doe to buck ratio, browse load vs carrying capacity of the land.   Keeping the population in balance with the land is the best way to have a healthy herd.   Quality vs Quanity.

« Last Edit: September 10, 2007, 04:19:12 PM by Boondocker »