Tubular Steel Tower for Wind Turbine
AGICO offers tailored steel manufacturing services for tubular section structures in wind turbine tubular towers, Segmented tubular towers and hybrid towers. Each tubular tower is designed and manufactured for a specific windmill project. Customers shall provide the drawings and specifications of the fabricated parts, and our factory will complete the manufacturing and delivery.
Wind Turbine Steel Tubular Tower Manufacture Details
- Tower Type: Steel Tubular Tower (Monopole Type)
- Main Materials: structural steel plate (Q355 / S355 / ASTM A572 or equivalent)
- Tower Section Configuration: Standard sections or segmented shell sections available
- Structural Dimensions: Customized according to turbine model and design drawings
- Grounding Resistance: ≤ 10 Ω
- Design Service Life: 25–30 years
- Connection Method: High-strength bolted flange connection
- Corrosion Protection: Enhanced coating systems available for offshore or coastal environments
- Installation Method: Crane-assisted section lifting and bolted assembly, Segmented shell on-site assembly.
Tubular Steel Tower for Wind Turbine
A tubular steel tower for wind turbine is the most widely adopted wind turbine tower type, it can be manufactured into standard and segmented tubular tower types, and is suitable for wind turbine capacity range (2MW-15MW). Featuring excellent structural performance, fatigue resistance, and a high degree of standardization, the tubular tower serves as the connecting steel structure between the wind turbine and the foundation anchor plate. It primarily installs the turbine rotor, gearbox, generator, and other equipment, elevating wind turbine to a height where it can capture wind.
Wind Turbine Steel Tubular Tower Structure
Steel tubular tower for a wind turbine typically consists of multiple cylindrical or conical tower sections rolled and welded from steel plates, connected by bolts and flanges. Each tubular section has a different diameter and height. The overall tubular tower height is usually between 80 and 120 meters to utilize high-altitude wind energy better. As with other windmill towers, a steel tubular tower is also equipped with a spiral staircase or elevator for convenient maintenance and upkeep.
Steel Plate For Tubular Tower Manufacture
Steel plates for wind turbine towers are industrial structural steel used in the manufacture of wind turbine towers. The main steel materials for the steel tubular tower are heavy plates of Q345E, Q345D, and Q345C, while the wind tower flanges are made of Q345D or Q345E and are ring forgings. Which have equivalent steel grades of S355 series under EN 10025 standards.
- The main material is Q345D low-alloy structural steel, conforming to GB/T1591-2008 standard.
- Product specifications cover a thickness range of 3-30mm, with chemical composition requirements of C≤0.18% and Mn≤1.70%.
- Mechanical properties require a yield strength ≥345MPa (≤16mm).
Using high-strength steel can achieve a 15%-20% weight reduction in wind turbine towers, a 10%-15% reduction in material costs, and a 20%-30% reduction in welding workload.
Tubular Tower Structural Type – Design & Configuration
Our wind turbine tubular towers are designed as an onshore windmill tower solution with tapered steel shell structures, and available for the 3 typical windmill configurations
- Standard Tubular Tower: Factory-fabricated cylindrical shell sections connected by flanges on site.
- Segmented Tubular Tower: Each tower section is divided into multiple shell segments for easier transportation and inland logistics.
- Hybrid Tower: Designed for high hub heights and large-capacity turbines.
Key Parameters of Steel Tubular Tower Manufacture
The tubular tower cylindrical sections are usually connected with bolted wind tower flange, its’ wind tubular tower height, wall thickness, bottom and top diameter are customized according to the turbine model and project requirement.
Wind Turbine Tubular Tower Manufacturing
The manufacturing process of wind turbine tubular towers uses structural steel plates, and following steps such as CNC cutting, beveling thick plates, rolling plates, spot welding, positioning, welding of internal and external longitudinal seams, roundness inspection, non-destructive testing of welds, and flatness inspection. Tower flanges are used to connect the segmented tower sections. AGICO provides full in-house manufacturing process covering every production step, which ensures the steel tubular tower quality.
- Steel Plate Pre-fabrication: steel plates are fully traceable and certified, use CNC flame cutting machine or laser cutting machine to cut heavy steel plates, then bevel and edge milling to prepare for precise welding.
- Cylindrical Shell Rolling & Forming: use heavy duty rolling machine to roll the thick plates into cylindrical shells or tapered shells, after rolling, pre-weld for deform prevention, and check the roundness and dimension for quality control.
- Welding Process: this process adopts automated and semi-automated welding systems for stable control of high quality welding to minimize distortion and residual stress, first use longitudinal submerged arc welding to complete the cylindrical shell sections,
- Tower Section Assembly: accurately fit-up the cylindrical sections with the high-strength forged or rolled tower flanges, and fit up every sections to complete the tower body, then circumferential welding of shell sections to form a complete tower section. Trial assembly before delivery when required.
- Surface Treatment & Corrosion Protection: first shot blasting (Sa 2.5) for rust removal, then choose internal and external coating processes for tubular tower according to onshore & offshore corrosion protection.
Related Wind Tower Steel Fabrication Products
AGICO supplies a wide range of high-strength steel fabrication products for wind mills, including steel tubular tower, steel lattice tower, offshore tubular tower, wind tower bolts and flanges; wind mill foundations of anchor cage foundation, monopile foundation, etc.
Steel Tubular Tower – Wind Turbine Standard Solution
Why use steel tubular tower for wind turbines? Steel tubular towers are the most widely adopted tower type for modern wind turbines (medium to large-capacity) of onshore and offshore windmills. It is the best tower type option for windmills with easy transportation access and requiring long service life. The closed cylindrical structure provides excellent fatigue performance, high stiffness, and low maintenance requirements.
Quality Control & Standards
Quality control of wind turbine steel tubular towers is a crucial aspect of the manufacturing process, directly impacting their safety and stability.
- Our steel tubular towers for wind turbine are manufactured in accordance with internationally recognized standards, EN 1090, AWS D1.1 / AWS D1.5, ISO 3834, DNV / GL.
- Dimensional qualities covers tower diameter, wall thickness, flange alignment, and overall geometry, ensuring full compliance with design tolerances.
- The weld quality control system includes – NDT (UT, MT, RT), weld fatigue control and surface flatness and roundness.
