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Samsø turbine collapsed due to welding crack

By: Tom Russell 15/12/2015 4C Offshore

General Turbines Windfarms

On Saturday 28-Nov-15 the nacelle, hub and blades of a single Siemens 2.3-MW wind turbine at the Samsø offshore wind farm collapsed into the sea. Commenting on the incident Siemens stated that the collapse was caused by a fracture in the welding.

Siemens has evaluated the incident at Samsø and performed a risk evaluation based upon the information available at this time. As a part of the root cause investigation, a metallurgical examination of the fracture area has been conducted.

Siemens stated: "the findings indicate that there was a fracture in the welding connecting the tower top flange with the tower. The crack developed over time, ultimately leading to a separation of the tower top flange with the rest of the tower."

The impacted turbine was installed by Bonus Energy in 2002. Siemens acquired Bonus Energy in 2004. The operator of the wind farm is Samsø Havvind A/S. No one was injured, and no one was working in or near the turbine at the time of the incident.

Siemens further commented: "the welding at the time of installation was made according to the industry welding standards of the production year 2002. The industry welding standards have subsequently been changed. The specific welding geometry in the Samsø turbine has only been used by a single tower supplier. This specific tower configuration is limited to 14 turbines only and the relevant customers have been informed. "

There is no evidence that the Samsø incident is related to a generic design or production defect and the remaining turbines have all been inspected and no cracks were found and they are all operating normally.

Samsø offshore wind farm, often referred to as Paludans Flak, is located off the coast of Denmark. It was put into operation in Q1 2003 and consists of 10 Siemens turbines. Jointly owned by Samso Municipality and Difko A/S the wind farm has a total installed capacity of 23MW.

For more information about Samsø offshore wind farm please follow the links provided. We also display the project on our interactive map.

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Samsø turbine collapsed due to welding crack

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