Exploding Windmill Video

Wow. I played it several times, looks like one of the blades bent and hit the base (fiberglass) and causing it to collapse/self destruct.
 

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Wow. I played it several times, looks like one of the blades bent and hit the base (fiberglass) and causing it to collapse/self destruct.

I think ya got it... I also replayed it over and over to try and pause it exactly at the moment to see exactly what happened. After what you said, replayed again and I think you're right. Anybody read the language to confirm? I suppose the wind just exceeded it's design limitations. My guess is that if they have to design the thing to withstand something WAY above normal it would cost too much. Then again, maybe this was a prototype and they were testing it out, thus the cam on it. Maybe they were just waiting for some serous wind to see how it would take it. If that's the case, it's back to the drawing board.
 
I think ya got it... I also replayed it over and over to try and pause it exactly at the moment to see exactly what happened. After what you said, replayed again and I think you're right. Anybody read the language to confirm? I suppose the wind just exceeded it's design limitations. My guess is that if they have to design the thing to withstand something WAY above normal it would cost too much. Then again, maybe this was a prototype and they were testing it out, thus the cam on it. Maybe they were just waiting for some serous wind to see how it would take it. If that's the case, it's back to the drawing board.

Those things normally have a system built in for High Winds and/or Overspeed conditions that will "Feather" the blades, (turn them like a knife edge into the wind) so they don't get any action from the wind and will either very slowly windmill or have a brake stop them completely. Apparently they had a "Slight" system failure somewhere in the overspeed protection system.:rolleyes:
 
IIRC....On "How it's made" on the Discovery Channel...they showed them making one of those. They had a built in braking system that functioned like a governor. If it got going too fast, the brake began engaging to slow it down at the same time it feathered the blades.

What I remember about the brakes was that the mechanism looked very similar to the old mechanical advance used on points on the old automobile ignition systems. The faster it turned, the more centrifugal force caused the brakes to be engaged.
 
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Have had three different wind turbines here in our county working. First one sent a blade half a block away straight into the ground like mumbley peg! Second one after three different instances, has been dismantled, third one sent a blade through the owner's kitchen ceiling, anyone standing at the sink would have died. Fourth one is built and no approval for hooking it up, been sitting idle for over a year.
 
Wind farms are sprouting all over the country like weeds.
Mebbe the technology isn't up to matching ole Mother Nature yet.
Many of those huge blades are built in Arkansas. I think it is a Dutch owned company though.
That was pretty dramatic. Scary.
 
If you go to western IA on I-80 there are several dozen of these and in northern IA on I-35 there are even more...lots of money is being made in leasing land to the power companies.

That video of one exploding and Jonathan's stories are scary...don't think I would want one in my back yard.
 
If you cross the Mojave out of Boron into the San Juaquin Valley in California, they line the mountain tops just like the "scarecrows" did in Planet of the Apes.. looks like a hundred or more of them.

On our return trip from Illinois back to Tennessee this past weekend, we saw about 6 trucks hauling the blades, westbound... those thing must be 60 or 70 feet long.. they were all on extension trailers with escort vehicles.
 
Question has come to mind.......why was a camera focused on that particular windmill at that time?
Very possible this was a test of a new blade or braking system and failure was anticipated.
I'll betcha it was more than coincidence.
 
Question has come to mind.......why was a camera focused on that particular windmill at that time?
Very possible this was a test of a new blade or braking system and failure was anticipated.
I'll betcha it was more than coincidence.

For the high cost of building these giants they must have all types of sensing devices for vibration/stress in addition to monitoring speed, bearing temps, output, blade control and whatever else.

They probably knew something bad was going to happen, evacuated the area and waited for the kaboom.
 
A friend of mine works for one of those widmill manufacturing companies.
He told me that the mills have a control brake so that the mill stops at a given maximum speed to prevent exactly what we see on the video.
He knows about this case and what what failed was the mentioned brake and as there was no other safe way to stop the mill the company decided to let it go with the hope of not losing the mill if the wind speed decreased.

That's why the video exists, as they were expecting the whole thing, the technicians thought they could learn something from it.

Most problably the fact of blowing up has to do with a combination of centrifugal force and harmonics together:dunno:
 
A friend of mine works for one of those widmill manufacturing companies.
He told me that the mills have a control brake so that the mill stops at a given maximum speed to prevent exactly what we see on the video.
He knows about this case and what what failed was the mentioned brake and as there was no other safe way to stop the mill the company decided to let it go with the hope of not losing the mill if the wind speed decreased.

That's why the video exists, as they were expecting the whole thing, the technicians thought they could learn something from it.

Most problably the fact of blowing up has to do with a combination of centrifugal force and harmonics together:dunno:

Thanks. Interesting. But they lost. Big Oops! :eek:
 
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