ABSTRACT
The overall FE tower model (Figure 1) is composed by the shell, the intermediate flanges and the embedded to the foundation skirt. The reinforced concrete foundation is also modeled. The structural model becomes denser in the vicinity of the flanges, the door opening and the base ring in order to more accurately describe the local concentration of the stresses. For a more efficient use of the FE software, a cylindrical coordinate system is used. The shell is divided along the height into skirts of varying thicknesses, each of which constitutes an individual FE group. The element arrangement along the circumference is dictated by the number of bolts of the connection flanges. This way, there is a node at each bolt position.
