Stress-based method for lifetime extension of wind turbines

The calculation of the remaining lifetime of wind turbines is today often based on a comparison of loads. Here, we have to make many assumptions. How can the state-of-the-art methods be improved in such a way that the results are more reliable and not excessively conservative?

We teamed up again with Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems to assess lifetime extension of wind turbines using stress-based method. The resulting paper focuses on the comparison between the analysis using this method and the state-of-the-art DEL-approach (damage-equivalent loads). The analysis was conducted for three components, which are usually the most critical regarding lifetime extension of wind turbines: blade root laminate, blade bolts, and main shaft.

A poster on this paper by Matthias Saathoff (PEC) and Malo Rosemeier (Fraunhofer IWES) was presented in the recent Torque 2020 conference (September 28th – October 2nd, 2020). You can find the paper draft and the poster here!