Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
12
Fatigue Design of Wind Turbines
David A. Spera, Ph.D.
Formerly Chief Engineer of Wind Energy Projects
NASA Lewis (now Glenn) Research Center
Cleveland, Ohio
and
Wind Energy Consultant
DASCON Engineering, LLC
Bonita Springs, Florida
Introduction
Wind turbine structures present many difficult fatigue design problems because they are
(1) relatively slender and flexible, (2) subject to vibration and resonance, (3) acted upon by
loads which are often non-deterministic, (4) operated continuously in all types of weather
with a minimum of maintenance, and (5) constantly competing with other energy sources on
the basis of life-cycle costs. Progress in the development of modern wind turbines has been
paced by progress in our understanding of fatigue loads, modeling of structural-dynamic
responses to unsteady winds, and the designing of innovative structural elements to reduce
these responses.
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