Special cases in fatigue analysis of wind turbines

Abstract

The turbine industry demands a reliable design with affordable cost. As technological advances begin to support turbines of huge sizes, and the increasing importance of wind turbines from day to day make design safety conditions more important. Wind turbines are exposed to environmental conditions that can affect their installation, durability, and operation. International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 61400-1 design load cases consist of analyses involving wind turbine operating conditions. This design load cases (DLC) is important for determining fatigue loads (i.e., forces and moments) that occur as a result of expected conditions throughout the life of the machine. With the help of FAST (Fatigue, Aerodynamics, Structures, and Turbulence), an open source software, the NREL 5MW land base wind turbine model was used. IEC 61400-1 wind turbine design standard procedures assessed turbine behavior and fatigue damage to the tower base of dynamic loads in different design conditions. Real characteristic wind speed distribution and multi-directional effect specific to the site were taken into consideration. The effect of these conditions on the economic service life of the turbine has been studied.