skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: A generalized fitting technique for the LIFE2 fatigue analysis code

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/383615· OSTI ID:383615
 [1];  [2]
  1. Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States). Wind Energy Research Dept.
  2. Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States). New Mexico Engineering Research Inst.

The analysis of component fatigue lifetime for a wind energy conversion system (WECS) requires that the component load spectrum be formulated in terms of stress cycles. Typically, these stress cycles are obtained from time series data using a cycle identification scheme. As discussed by many authors, the matrix or matrices of cycle counts that describe the stresses on a turbine are constructed from relatively short, representative samples of time series data. The ability to correctly represent the long-term behavior of the distribution of stress cycles from these representative samples is critical to the analysis of service lifetimes. Several techniques are currently used to convert representative samples to the lifetime cyclic loads on the turbine. There has been recently developed a set of fitting algorithms that is particularly useful for matching the body of the distribution of fatigue stress cycles on a turbine component. Fitting techniques are now incorporated into the LIFE2 fatigue/fracture analysis code for wind turbines. In this paper, the authors provide an overview of the fitting algorithms and describe the pre- and post-count algorithms developed to permit their use in the LIFE2 code. Typical case studies are used to illustrate the use of the technique.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000
OSTI ID:
383615
Report Number(s):
SAND-96-1992; ON: DE96009484; TRN: AHC29621%%60
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: Aug 1996
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English