Simulation of fatigue failure in a full composite wind turbine blade

Lifetime prediction of a horizontal axis wind turbine composite blade is considered. Load cases are identified, calculated and evaluated. Static analysis is performed with a full 3-D finite element method and the critical zone where fatigue failure begins is extracted. Accumulated fatigue damage modeling is employed as a damage estimation rule based on generalized material property degradation. Since wind flow (loading) is random, a stochastic approach is employed to develop a computer code in order to simulate wind flow with randomness in its nature on the blade and subsequently each load case is weighted by its rate of occurrence using a Weibull wind speed distribution. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.