Fatigue Assessment of Wind Turbine Towers: Review of Processing Strategies with Illustrative Case Study

João Pacheco, Francisco Pimenta, Sérgio Pereira, Álvaro Cunha and Filipe Magalhães
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João Pacheco: Construct-ViBest, Faculty of Engineering (FEUP), University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Francisco Pimenta: Construct-ViBest, Faculty of Engineering (FEUP), University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Sérgio Pereira: Construct-ViBest, Faculty of Engineering (FEUP), University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Álvaro Cunha: Construct-ViBest, Faculty of Engineering (FEUP), University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal
Filipe Magalhães: Construct-ViBest, Faculty of Engineering (FEUP), University of Porto, 4200-465 Porto, Portugal

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 13, 1-25

Abstract: Wind turbines are structures predominantly subjected to dynamic loads throughout their period of life. In that sense, fatigue design plays a central role. Particularly, support structure design might be conservative with respect to fatigue, which may lead to a real fatigue life of considerably more than 20 years. For these reasons, the implementation of a fatigue monitoring system can be an important advantage for the management of wind farms, providing the following outputs: (i) estimation of the evolution of real fatigue condition; (ii) since the real condition of fatigue damage is known, these results could be an essential element for a decision about extending the lifespan of the structure and the possibility of repowering or overpowering; and (iii) the results of the instrumented wind turbines can be extrapolated to other wind turbines of the same wind farm. This paper reviews the procedures for calculating the fatigue damage of wind turbine towers using strain measurements. The applicability of the described procedures is demonstrated with experimental data acquired in an extensive experimental campaign developed at Tocha Wind Farm, an onshore wind farm located in Portugal, exploring the impact of several user-defined parameters on the fatigue results. The paper also includes the description of the data processing needed to convert raw measurements into bending moments and several validation and calibration steps.

Keywords: wind turbine; fatigue assessment; dynamic monitoring; strain gauges (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: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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