As a consequence of this manufacturing and construction
process, a large amount of welds are generated on the towers
and, in spite of the quality controls that can be applied, different
types of defects may arise (lack of penetration, pores, inclusions,
misalignment . . . ). The special precautions taken during the SAW
process (in terms of heat input, speed, etc.), together with the
shoot peening post-treatment, ensure that the welds obtained
have negligible residual stresses for structural integrity assessment
purposes.
As mentioned above, a methodology is here proposed for
the structural integrity assessment of towers containing lack
of penetration defects, which can be easily extrapolated to
other types of defects (i.e., pores) or towers (non-tubular). The
methodology is applied to the analysis of a case study consisting
of the structural integrity assessment of several wind towers
containing lack of penetration defects that were detected after the
construction process and before entering in service.