Poul la Cour - Cable Guyed Masts from Wood

from MAYWIND

Summary

Poul La Cour Wandering Masts are characterized by the following features:

• installation by tilting-up, without crane
• durability
• light weight
• uncomplicated transport
• stainless steel rig and attachments

The wood from tall-growing trees, in particular the wood from some sorts of spruce and pine, is predestined for the use in small to medium size cable guyed masts. Their resilience, high fatigue endurance limit, excellent specific rigidity, and their nonlinear stress-strain relation make it a perfect material for slender structures under axial and combined loading. Despite the imperfections, knots, resin strata and deviations from the ideal cylinder, bars from these materials do compare favourably with light metall alloys and fibre compound materials.

Suitable tall-growing Black Forest saplings are selected, dried, and machined to dimension. Combined with simple stainless steel couplings they make up for an extremely slender and elegant mast system that has been named after the Dane Poul la Cour (1846 -- 1908), a hands-on wind energy pioneer and visionary advocate of wind/hydrogen energy systems. It is due to his initiative that the first generation of "wind electricians" has been trained in Denmark, during a period, where, in other places, the art of tapping the wind resource gradually fell into oblivion.

The two smallest of the Poul la Cour Wandering Masts, 10.0 and 13.0 m, are erected without any special tools or a crane even. The higher masts require an auxiliary mast, which is included in the shipment, and a light hand winch, which can be obtained as an option. The instrument boom, lightning rod, data logger stay and the complete cable rig is manufactured from stainless steel and is contained in the shipment. Pegs and foundation plate are from hot-rolled mild steel and included as well. The foundation plate is protected by paint.

Maywind Wandering Masts are dimensioned employing modern engineering techniques, such as the Finite Element Method, and in accordance with the applicable European and German codes and standards. Special care has been taken to avoid vortex-induced vibration which might damage the meteorological equipment or increase error. The wooden barīs ultimate strength under bending is regularily being tested.

Poul-La-Cour-Wandering-Masts are currently available for the heights:

• 10.0 m (no building permit required within most Laender in Germany)
• 13.0 m
• 16.2 m
• 21.0 m
• 25.5 m
• 30.0 m

• 10.0 m: indicative prospection and correlation; outrigger mast for micrositing
• 13.0 m: indicative prospection and correlation; outrigger mast for micrositing
• 16.2 m: wind speed measurement for wind turbine capture estimation in simple terrain
• 21.0/ 25.0 m: wind speed measurement for energy capture estimation in complex orography; deriving the roughness length by speed gradient measurement
• 30.0 m: wind speed measurement for capture estimation near hub height in complex orography; ideal central mast for micrositing correlation; wind speed gradient measurement

• additional instrument booms
• windRise time series data logger
• additional stay for second WindRise time series data logger (4/6-channel measurement)
• tubular steel foot segment for sites with increased risk of bushfire
• hand winches
• customer specific systems for structural surveying under wind-induced loading
• masts to customer specifications
• Reed contact anemometers
• Reed contact direction vanes
• anemometer calibration
• control units for wind prospecting systems and small wind energy converters

• Jotunheimer cable guyed tubular steel masts (only recommended for arctic or alpine sites)

• mast installation
• mast analyzis
• building approval applications
• anemometry services
• wind prospecting service / capture calculation for wind energy converters
• deriving dynamic load collectives from wind for statical analyzis of structures
• strain gauge measurements / strain verfication in structures
• deriving power time series for the dimensioning of wind / diesel systems