Statistical analysis of fatigue loads in a direct drive wind turbine

Conference poster, 2014

In order to assess the fatigue life of drive train components, we seek to determine how the component damage index can be estimated, not only in terms of its expected value, but also its distribution due to a turbulent wind field introducing randomness. For assessing the fatigue life of main shaft bearings it was found that: • A quasi-static drive train model may be sufficient for a direct drive concept in normal operation • The average and variability of the damage index rate varies substantially with the mean wind speed • The variability of the estimated total component damage index should be considered when estimating the total damage