Experimental on the fatigue failure areas of wind turbine blades’ rotating fundamental frequency

Abstract

The dominant type of vibration in wind turbine blades is flapwise vibration, which causes fatigue loading owing to the out-of-plane alternating load, with blade breakage occurring when the load is below the strength limit. Consequently, the mechanism and distribution of alternating-load generation must be understood to reduce the fatigue load. The strain data in the flapwise direction at the characteristic position of the operating wind turbine were collected to learn the characteristics of the spanwise distribution of the strain power spectral density (PSD) amplitude, to explore the fatigue damage-prone area and the generation mechanism, and to reveal the influence of the rotational speed on the spanwise distribution of the strain. It was evident that linked torsional and edgewise vibrations were predominant and that the strain PSD amplitude of the 1P loading component was nonlinear because of the Brazier effect in the transition region. The fatigue failure susceptible region of the rotating blade is more accurately identified. Except for the 0.10 R position, the blade 1P component 0.70–0.75 R spanwise region is more prone to failure. The rotation speed increases the dynamic fluctuation of spanwise strain.