15

Fatigue
From earlier chapters it is clear that the loads on a wind turbine vary constantly with time, giving rise to a possible breakdown due to accumulated
fatigue damage. In Madsen et al (1990) a recommended practice to estimate
the fatigue damage, and thus the lifetime of a wind turbine, is outlined. This
chapter provides a summary of this practice.
First, the loads must be obtained from either computations using an
aeroelastic code or directly from measurements. For normal operation the
loads are monitored for 10 minutes in each wind speed interval Vp <Vo <Vp+1.
An example of such a time history for V10min = 11m/s and a turbulence intensity
I = 0.1 is seen in Figure 10.2, which is a result of a simulation using the
aeroelastic code FLEX. The turbulence intensity, I, is defined as /V10min,
where is the standard deviation of the wind speed within the 10 minute
time series. Knowing the loads, the stresses at critical points on the wind
turbine are computed using equations (11.9) (Hooks law) and (11.10). As a
minimum it is recommended in Madsen et al (1990) to monitor the blade
bending moments, the yaw and tilt rotor moments, the axial thrust, the torque
in the main shaft, the bending moments of the tower, and the torsional
moment in the tower. From each 10 minutes time history the stresses are
sorted in a matrix, where the elements mij(Vp <Vo <Vp+1) denote the number of
cycles in the mean stress interval m,i <m<m,i+1 and range interval r,j < r
< r,j+1 for the wind speed interval Vp <Vo <Vp+1. Figure 15.1 sketches one cycle
with a mean stress value m and a range r; it is seen that the range is twice
the amplitude a.
To count the number of cycles from an actual time series such as the one
shown in Figure 10.2, a technique called rainflow counting is used (for a
complete description of this algorithm, see Madsen et al, 1990). Then,
knowing the annual wind distribution hW (Vo ), the probability, f, of the wind
speed being in the interval Vp <Vo <Vp+1 is computed from equation (6.48). The
actual number of annual 10 minute periods where the wind speed is in this
interval is 68760f. The number of cycles per year, nij, in the mean stress
interval m,i < m <m,i+1 and in the range interval r,j <r <r,j+1 is found by

158 | Aerodynamics of Wind Turbines

Figure 15.1 Definition of mean stress m and range r for one cycle

adding together the contributions from each wind speed interval:

N1

nij = mij(Vp <Vo <Vp+l)68760f (Vp <Vo <Vp+l),

(15.1)

p=1

where N1 is the number of wind speed intervals. The matrix M, with

elements nij, is called the Markov matrix. A wind turbine also experiences
loads when starting and stopping and when running under abnormal
conditions such as at high yaw angles. Before a lifetime analysis can be
performed, it is also necessary to estimate these loads with respect to the
annual number of occurrences with a given mean stress interval m,i < m
< m,i+1 and range interval r,j < r < r,j+1 and add this to the Markov matrix nij.
In so doing one has to distinguish between starting and stopping at high wind
speed and low wind speed, since the loads are different in these two cases.
IEC 61400 (2004) gives a complete list of the different load cases needed for
certification. The total number of cycles in the entire lifetime within the mean
stress interval m,i < m < m,i+1 and range interval r,j < r < r,j+1 is:
ntot,if = Tnij

(15.2)

where the lifetime T is measured in years. To estimate T, the Palmgren-Miner

rule, equation (15.3), for cumulative damage during cyclic loading is used.
This rule assumes that the ratio between the number of applied stress cycles,

Fatigue | 159

nij, with a given mean stress level m,i and range r,j, and the number of cycles,
Nij, which with the same mean stress and range would lead to failure,
constitutes the expended part of the useful fatigue life and that the sum of
these ratios is thus the damage D. Thus the criteria for not failing is that D is
less than 1:
ntot,ij

= D<1

N

(15.3)

ij

Combining equation (15.2) with equation (15.3) yields the following

equation to estimate the lifetime T:
1
T =
nij
N
ij

(15.4)

The number of cycles, Nij, leading to failure for a cyclic loading with a given
mean stress level m,i and range r,j for a given material is found in a so-called
S-N curve or Whler curve like the one sketched in Figure 15.2.

Figure 15.2 Sketch of an S-N curve

160 | Aerodynamics of Wind Turbines

Sometimes only the range r, j is taken into account and the influence of the
mean stress level m,i is ignored. Under this assumption the S-N curve can be
approximated by:

r(N *)
N = N
r
*

(15.5)

where m is a material constant and r(N*) is the stress range giving failure for
N* cycles. According to DS 412 (1983), for steel m is approximately 4.0; for
glass fibre m is approximately 812.
The damage D can be estimated using the Palmgren-Miner rule. To
compare the contribution from the different wind speeds to the total fatigue
damage, an equivalent, r,eq, load can be used. The equivalent load is defined
as the cyclic load which, when applied neq times, gives the same fatigue
damage on the wind turbine as the real turbulent flow at the considered wind
speed. Since the total damage, D, is known, the equivalent load can be
calculated similarly to using equation (15.5) for the S-N curve:
neq
neq
D = =

Neq N* r(N *) m

r,eq

 

*
D
N
r,eq = r (N *)
neq

(15.6)

1/m

Figure 15.3 plots a time series of 300s of a flapwise bending moment; Figure
15.4 shows the result of using rainflow counting on this signal; in other
words, the number of cycles with a given range contained in the time series.

Figure 15.3 An example of a time history of a flapwise bending moment

Fatigue | 161

Figure 15.4 Result of using rainflow counting on the time series from Figure 15.3

A time series consisting of a sequence of cyclic loads with increasing range

can be made that, assuming the Palmgren-Miner rule is correct, will give the
same fatigue damage as the original time series. Such a time series is shown
in Figure 15.5.

Figure 15.5 Sequence of cyclic loads with increasing range that gives the same fatigue
damage as the original time series

References
DS 412 (1983) Dansk Ingenirforenings norm for stlkonstruktioner (Danish standard for
steel constructions)
IEC 61400-1 (2004) Wind turbines. Part 1: Design requirements, CD, edition 3, second
revision, IEC TC88-MT1
Madsen, P. H., Dekker, J. W. M., Thor, S. E., McAnulty, K., Matthies, H. and Thresher, R. W.
(1990) Expert group study on recommended practices for wind turbine testing and
evaluation. 3: Fatigue loads, IEA Wind Energy Conversion Systems, second edition