Tower foundation with concrete box girder beams
AssigneeRute Foundation Systems, Inc.
InventorsAdrian Corella, Doug Krause, Zach Godsell
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Concrete foundations for supporting towers and other structures under heavy cyclical loads are described. Some or all of the major concrete components, such as the beams and the hubs, that form the foundation are fabricated off-site and then transported to the intended use site for the foundation. The concrete components can be fabricated as pre-cast segments, sections, or pieces, with the pre-cast segments then being assembled in the field at the use site to form each component, and the components then being assembled together to form the foundation. In one embodiment, the beams used in the foundation may have a box-girder construction.
Claims14
A wind turbine foundation, comprising:
- a center hub that is configured to be secured to a tower of a wind turbine;
- a plurality of pre-cast concrete beams secured to and projecting radially outward from the hub, each of the pre-cast concrete beams is formed as a box girder construction;
- and
- a plurality of post tensioning cables that extend through the pre-cast concrete beams and secure the pre-cast concrete beams and the center hub to one another.
A wind turbine foundation, comprising:
- a center hub that is configured to be secured to a tower of a wind turbine;
- a plurality of pre-cast concrete beams secured to and projecting radially outward from the hub, each of the pre-cast concrete beams is formed as a box girder construction;
- and
- an adaptor plate fixed to the center hub, and an access port formed in the adaptor plate that permits a human to access an interior of the center hub and access an interior of each of the pre-cast concrete beams.
A method of fabricating a wind turbine foundation, comprising:
- forming a plurality of pre-cast concrete beam segments at an off-site location separate from an intended use location of the wind turbine foundation;
- transporting the plurality of pre-cast concrete beam segments to the intended use location;
- at the intended use location, assembling a plurality of pre-cast concrete beams from the plurality of pre-cast concrete beam segments, each of the assembled pre-cast concrete beams is formed as a box-girder construction;
- and
- at the intended use location, assembling the plurality of pre-cast concrete beams and a center hub to form the wind turbine foundation.
A method of fabricating a wind turbine foundation, comprising:
- forming a plurality of pre-cast concrete beams at an off-site location separate from an intended use location of the wind turbine foundation, each of the pre-cast concrete beams is formed as a box girder construction;
- transporting the plurality of pre-cast concrete beams to the intended use location;
- and
- at the intended use location, assembling the plurality of pre-cast concrete beams and a center hub to form the wind turbine foundation.
A wind turbine foundation, comprising:
- a center hub that is configured to be secured to a tower of a wind turbine, the center hub is formed from four pre-cast concrete hub segments that are assembled together;
- a plurality of pre-cast concrete beams secured to and projecting radially outward from the center hub, each of the pre-cast concrete beams is formed as a box girder construction;
- and
- each one of the pre-cast concrete hub segments has an opening that allows a human to pass through the respective pre-cast concrete hub segment and into an interior of the pre-cast, box girder concrete beams.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.