A simplified tower model for mass and cost estimation

Nowadays many wind turbines manufacture companies make extensive use of a wind turbine cost model determining cost of energy considering capital cost of wind turbines. Unique features of this model include accounting for the component cost impacts with changes to design parameters or to design loads. This model represents all the major components of wind turbine, but this model is inevitably highly complex. To be effective and practical to run, it is necessary to simplify model for each component and system where the most important parts are effectively represented. The aim of this paper is to take a closer look to one component, the simplified model of the wind turbine tower or support structure is represented and analysed.