Onshore wind turbines investigation with finite element method

The investments made in our country in the field of wind energy has increased along with the necessary regulations. It is important to carefully examine the foundation and the building ground so that these investments with high installation costs are not damaged during the operational life. Today, computer package programs are used when analyzing ground-foundation interactions. Package programs that perform analysis with the finite element method are frequently preferred by researchers and sector employees because they give results faster and more economically than analytical and experimental analysis. For this reason, it is important to know how well the values obtained as a result of the analysis reflect the reality in terms of foresight that will occur in people working in this field. Different results can be obtained in the two-dimensional and three-dimensional analysis of the computer package programs in which soil deformation analysis is performed with the finite element method. In this study; two-dimensional and three-dimensional analysis of deformations that may occur on the ground of terrestrial wind turbines were made using a computer program. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional analysis results of the shallow foundations in square and circular shapes were compared. It was seen that the deformation values formed in the two-dimensional analysis of the square foundation were 60% higher than the three-dimensional analysis. This situation can be explained by the fact that the three-dimensional program makes a more detailed and realistic analysis than the two-dimensional program. Another comparison of the study is the circular raft basis, which can be modeled in three dimensions, but requires transformation in two-dimensional analysis. While the circular foundation is modeled in two dimensions, it must be solved by transforming it with the equivalent area method. In this case, the deformation results of the three-dimensional program were 5% more than the two-dimensional program. It was concluded that this situation is a subject that should be investigated experimentally.