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A method of determining test load for full-scale wind turbine blade fatigue tests

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Abstract

Full-scale fatigue test is an effective method for validating the fatigue performance of wind turbine blade. Its primary problem is how to design the test load. The conventional approach to determine test load requires a complicated and time-consuming process. Thus, a simplified method for directly converting load spectrum of blade into test load is proposed in this paper. Firstly, beam theory is used to obtain the relationship between stress, strain and bending moment of blade cross section. Based on the assumption of local stress concentration and linear relationship between stress and strain, M-N curves (applied moment vs. allowable number of cycles to failure) is defined. Secondly, based on Miner's linear cumulative damage theory and constant life diagram, the equivalent fatigue cumulative damage of load spectrum which is equal to the damage of full-scale fatigue test is obtained. Then, in the case of the selected test load ratio and cycles, the mean and amplitude of test load can be solved. Finally, the validity of the proposed method is verified by an illustrative example. The result indicates that the error of the calculated results between this method and the traditional method is close to 5 %, and it can be used for fatigue test and improve the efficiency of test load design.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mechanical and Electronical Engineering, Lanzhou, University of Technology, Lanzhou, Gansu, 730050, China

    Qiang Ma, Zong-Wen An, Jian-Xiong Gao, Hai-Xia Kou & Xue-Zong Bai

Authors
  1. Qiang Ma
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  2. Zong-Wen An
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  3. Jian-Xiong Gao
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  4. Hai-Xia Kou
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  5. Xue-Zong Bai
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zong-Wen An.

Additional information

This paper was presented at ICMR 2017 & QR2MSE 2017, Crowne Plaza Chengdu West, Chengdu, China, October 24–27, 2017. Recommended by Guest Editor Dong Ho Bae.

Qiang Ma is currently a Ph.D. candidate in School of Mechanical and Electronical Engineering at Lanzhou University of Technology of China. His research interests include fatigue life prediction and fatigue testing of wind turbine blade.

Zong-Wen An is a Professor of School of Mechanical and Electronical Engineering at Lanzhou University of Technology of China. He received the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in 2009. He is a senior member of Chinese mechanical engineering society. His research interests include structural reliability analysis, mechanical design theory and methodology.

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Ma, Q., An, ZW., Gao, JX. et al. A method of determining test load for full-scale wind turbine blade fatigue tests. J Mech Sci Technol 32, 5097–5104 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-018-1006-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-018-1006-y

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