Author: David Malcolm
Publication: Wind Energy Symposium
Year Published: 1990
The field stress data from two locations on the blade of the Indal 500 kW Darrieus rotor have been processed into histograms of fatigue stresses and grouped according to the atmospheric turbulence intensity. The aim was to determine the magnitude of the maximum cyclic stresses on the rotor. These distributions are compared with corresponding results obtained from a frequency domain structural analysis model. Comparisons are good and confirm the greater role of turbulence in in-plane blade bending.