Open Access

Having 22 GW of nominal power installed Germany is the leading nation in wind energy conversion. While the number of suitable installation sites ashore is limited, and the average windspeed and thus the utilization level offshore is significantly higher, more and more offshore wind farms are planned. In order to reduce the cost of building the foundations and of connecting the wind turbines to the power grid, the single plant is designed as powerful as possible and therefore the components become huge and weighty. For instance: In order to lift the nacelle with around 500 tons of weight up on the tower - which can be up to 120 m above the water level - at the time special ships and cranes are designed and built. But those firstly will be very expensive and secondly will be available only on a limited scale. Hence the installation cost of those huge wind turbines significantly influence the rentability of a wind farm. Against this background a joint research project supported by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) was started comprising the project partners Ed. Züblin AG, Berg-idl GmbH (an engineering company and a maker of special purpose machines in Altlußheim, Germany), the IPEK (institute for product development) at the university of Karlsruhe and the Hochschule Offenburg, university of applied science. Project target is the conceptual design of a heavy-duty elevator, which can be used to install the tower segments and the nacelle of a wind turbine offshore without a crane. The most relevant challenges in this context result of holding up extreme loads by means of comparatively filigree carrying structures. The paper shows some examples of structural analysis and optimization work accomplished during the project. For the structural analysis of the heavy loaded components ANSYS workbench was used. The development process was also supported by optimization tools like TOSCA and OPTIMUS. The linking of the FE solver and the optimizer provides important hints concerning improvement of the topology and the dimensions of the components. Examples of designs illustrate the development process and the methods applied.