The use of long term monitoring data for the extension of the service duration of existing wind turbine support structures

Abstract

Actual wind energy converter (WEC) are designed for a relatively short service life of 20 years and the limiting criterion is the fatigue safety. However, effective fatigue loading endured by the structural components of the wind turbines (WT) is likely to be much below design assumptions provided by current codes. This paper describes a simple but efficient long term monitoring system that allows owners to verify the fatigue safety of their existing WTs. The monitored data will also help to drastically extend the service life of existing wind turbine support structure and will thus reduce the global environmental footprint of WTs.