Fatigue analysis of a small wind turbine using NREL codes

Dissertant

Nana, Zaynab

Thesis advisor

Bin Tami, Anas

University

Al Akhawayn University

Faculty

School of Science and Engineering

University Country

Morocco

Degree

Master

Degree Date

2017

English Abstract

During their service life, the blades of small wind turbine will experience a variety of cyclic loading due to the stochastic nature of the wind.

To avoid the failure of the machine and to ensure that it will operate properly, an analysis must be conducted.

Fatigue analysis is an important aspect in the design of wind turbine because it demonstrates whether the design wind turbine blade is capable of resisting the full load spectrum imposed during its lifetime which is typically 20 years.

Also, fatigue failure prediction plays an important role in reducing the maintenance cost.

This thesis fall within the framework of a project entitled “Integrated design and manufacture of a small wind turbine in the Moroccan context within certification type IEC 61400 series” which is funded by IRESEN institute (l’Institut de Recherche en Energie Solaire et Energies Nouvelles).

The analysis of aerodynamic loads (Time-series of wind data) was conducted using FAST which is a simulation tool developed by the NREL (National Renewable energy laboratory) and used to predict the load applied on three blades horizontal wind turbine.

Then, results of FAST simulation were used as an input of MLife which is a fatigue failure analysis code developed by the NREL, and used to compute accumulated life damage and time to failure of the wind turbine blade using the Miner linear rule and rainflow algorithm.

Based on the Miner’s rule, the wind turbine blade will be safe against fatigue when the accumulated damage over the design life time is less than unity

Main Subjects

Mechanical Engineering

Topics

• Wind turbines

No. of Pages

83

Table of Contents

• APA
• MLA
• AMA

Language

English

Data Type

Arab Theses

Record ID

BIM-775527