Fatigue Load Analysis of Yawed Wind Turbines Considering Geometric Nonlinearity of Blades

Dereje Haile Hirgeto, Guo-Wei Qian (), Xuan-Yi Zhou and Wei Wang
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Dereje Haile Hirgeto: State Key Laboratory of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Guo-Wei Qian: Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhuhai), School of Ocean Engineering and Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai 519082, China
Xuan-Yi Zhou: State Key Laboratory of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Wei Wang: State Key Laboratory of Disaster Reduction in Civil Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 19, 1-23

Abstract: Fatigue damage of yawed wind turbine components can be caused by repeated long-term unsteady asymmetric inflow loads across the rotor swept area, necessitating fatigue load analysis to ensure the in-operation safety of wind turbines. This study investigates the impact of geometric nonlinearity on the fatigue loads of wind turbine components. The geometrically exact beam theory (GEBT), implemented in BeamDyn of OpenFAST, is employed to model full geometric nonlinearity. For comparison, ElastoDyn in OpenFAST, which uses the generalized Euler–Bernoulli beam theory for straight isotropic beams, is also utilized. Aeroelastic simulations were conducted for the national renewable energy laboratory (NREL 5 MW) and international energy agency (IEA) 15 MW wind turbines. Fatigue loads, quantified by the damage equivalent load (DEL) based on Palmgren–Miner’s rule, were analyzed for critical components, including blade out-of-plane (OOP) moments, low-speed shaft (LSS) torque, LSS bending moment (LSSBM), and tower base bending moment (TBBM). Results indicate that geometric nonlinearity significantly influences fatigue damage in critical turbine components, with significant differences observed between BeamDyn and ElastoDyn simulations.

Keywords: fatigue load; wind turbine; aerodynamic response; geometric nonlinearity; yaw offset (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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