Structural capacity of a wind turbine tower considering

fatigue damage over time

Indira Inzunza-Aragón1, Sonia E. Ruiz2, Adrián Pozos-Estrada3
Institute of Engineering, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City, Mexico
1Corresponding author

E-mail: 1IinzunzaA@iingen.unam.mx, 2SruizG@iingen.unam.mx, 3ApozosE@iingen.unam.mx

Received 15 October 2018; accepted 31 October 2018
DOI https://doi.org/10.21595/vp.2018.20314
Copyright © 2018 Indira Inzunza-Aragón, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract. The extremely changing nature of the wind action generates fatigue effects on wind
sensitive structures, such as Wind Turbines (WT). Here, the wind-induced response over time of
a WT tower located in Oaxaca, Mexico, is calculated considering fatigue damage. The analyses
consider three main stages: time cero (at the moment of the tower installation, considering no
damage), service time, considering different levels of damage at the tower’s base (corresponding
to 20, 24, 30, 40 and 43 years), and time near the collapse limit state of the tower (about 47 years).
In order to characterize these effects, a methodology that uses an ARMA model to simulate
time-series of turbulent wind speed, and a non-lineal fatigue damage model is proposed. The
structural capacity of the tower is obtained over time and details about the impact of wind-induced
fatigue on the capacity of the WT are highlighted.
Keywords: ARMA simulation model, fatigue, wind turbine tower, cumulative damage.

1. Introduction

According to the Global Wind Energy Council, in the last decades, the use of wind power has
globally increased. In 2017, the global installed wind capacity has reached 539, 581 MW [1]. Only
in Mexico, in 2016 the electric energy generated by wind represent about 7 % of the total national
production, and an increase of the 35 % of the total electric energy has been projected to 2020 [2].
The changing nature of wind speeds makes WT extremely sensitive to fatigue effects; as result
of this condition, it is important to simulate the wind velocities properly and accurately. In Wind
Engineering, numerical and statistics methods have been applied to simulate wind speeds for a
certain time horizon, for example: wavelet superposition, Artificial Neural Networks, hybrid
methods, and time-series approach such as the Auto-Regressive Moving Average (ARMA) model
[3-5].
The interaction of the wind with the blades generates important aerodynamic effects that
impact on the structural capacity. Numerical methods such as the Blade Element Momentum
(BEM) [6], Vorticity models [7, 8] or Computational Fluid Dynamics [9, 10] allow to simulate
the wind field and obtain the wind forces that act on the blades.
Fatigue effects are usually represented by means of a damage ratio of the material. Several
fatigue models have been developed to characterize it, for example: Palmgren-Miner’s rule [11],
Manson bi-lineal model and its variants [12-15], Damage isolines model [16] or non-lineal fatigue
damage model [17].
The structural capacity and demand are fundamental to establish inspection and maintenance
periods, especially for time cumulative effects, such as fatigue. This study deals with the
evaluation of the structural capacity, considering structural deterioration due to fatigue effects.

2. Objectives

The main aim is of this study is to analyze the structural capacity of a WT tower over time,
considering fatigue effects at the tower’s base, taking into account different damage levels over
the tower life cycle from the moment of its installation.
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INDIRA INZUNZA-ARAGÓN, SONIA E. RUIZ, ADRIÁN POZOS-ESTRADA

3. Methodology

Structural wind capacity is an important topic for design, operation and maintenance of WT.
Most of the studies are focused on the blades, because these components have greater failure
probability than the tower; however, the tower’s failure implies the total collapse of the entire WT.
The principal concepts used to obtain the structural capacity are:
1) Wind speeds and wind forces along the tower for a speed interval of 1 to 80 m/s at rotor’s
height. The set of wind simulations are calculated here using an ARMA model, considering the
Davenport’s coherence function to get the spatial and time correlation, and Kaimal Power Spectral
Density (PSD) function as the target function. The wind forces that act on the tower are calculated
in accordance with the International Committee for Industrial Chimneys (CICIND, for its name
in French) [18].
2) Wind field simulation uses the Veers model [19] and Blade Element Momentum method to
obtain the wind forces on the WT’s rotor, for the same speed interval. The BEM method includes
the Glauert correction for turbulence effects on the blade’s tip.
3) Then, the fatigue analysis at the tower’s base is performed. In first place, Simple Rainflow
Counting is applied on the set of stress time series to get the effective stress range and the
equivalent number of cycles for each velocity. Then, wind speed scenarios are simulated fitting
the probability function measured on the interest site. In addition, the hurricanes occurrence is
taken into account as a Poisson process. Finally, the S-N curve of the material is established to
apply the non-lineal fatigue damage model.
4) A series of Non-lineal Dynamic Analysis are carried out to get the structural capacity,
considering the damage accumulation over time.

4. Illustrative case

Mexico have a great wind power potential, specially a region in Oaxaca known as La Ventosa,
which has approximately 2000 MW on wind power generation and an annual mean wind speed
above 7 m/s, making an excellent resource potential zone.
In this study, a representative Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine structural model installed in La
Ventosa, Mexico, is analyzed. The blade characteristics where interpreted, based on the European
patent EP 2 593 670 B1 [20] because of the limited amount of public information of this structures.
The WT main characteristics are listed in the Table 1.

Table 1. Principal characteristics of the WT analyzed [21]

Tower characteristics Rotor characteristics
Base diameter 4.3 m Number of blades 3
Top diameter 2.13 m Rated power 2 MW
Base thickness 0.028 m Diameter 84.26 m
Top thickness 0.018 m Rotor Height 80 m
Height 80 m Rotor Weight 149 kN
Steel grade S355 Nacelle Weight 513 kN
Yield stress 355 MPa Blade weight (ea.) 58 kN

4.1. Wind speed simulation using ARMA model

ARMA model is constituted by two parts: The Auto-Regressive, which relates de present
values with the previous ones, and the Moving Average, that relates the mean values to the white
noise function. Eq. (1) shows the parameters of the ARMA model:

𝑢 𝑧, 𝑡 = 𝐴 𝐾 𝑡 − 𝑖∆𝑡 + 𝐵 𝜀 𝑡 − 𝑖∆𝑡 , (1)

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where 𝑢 𝑧, 𝑡 is the turbulent velocities vector for a specific height, 𝑧, and time, 𝑡; 𝑝 and 𝑞 are
the Auto-Regressive and Moving Average order, respectively; 𝐴 and 𝐵 are the coefficient
matrix for the Auto-Regressive and Moving Average model; 𝜀 is the white noise vector. The
Spatial correlation matrix, 𝐾 𝑡 , is determinate by the cross-spectral method, in which the
Kaimal’s PSD Function, 𝑆 𝑓 , of two different points are correlated by the coherence function,
𝑐𝑜ℎ 𝑦 , 𝑥 , 𝑦 , 𝑥 , proposed by Davenport [22]. The spatial correlation matrix and Kaimal’s PSDF
are given respectively by Eqs. (2) and (3):

𝐾 𝑡 = 𝑆 𝑓 𝑆 𝑓 𝑐𝑜ℎ 𝑦 , 𝑥 , 𝑦 , 𝑥 cos2𝜋𝑓𝑡𝑑𝑡, (2)

22𝑧𝜎
𝑆 𝑓 = /
.
𝑓𝑧 (3)
𝑈 𝑧 1 + 33
𝑈 𝑧

Wind forces on the tower are calculated according to Eq. (4), where 𝜌 represents air density,
𝑈 is the wind speed at the force direction as the sum of the mean wind speed and the turbulent
part, 𝐴 the exposed area of the structure, and 𝐶 the drag coefficient for cylindrical bodies
calculated in accordance with CICIND. The tower length was discretized in 80 parts to calculate
the wind forces, each meter:

1
𝐹 = 𝜌𝐴𝑈 𝐶 . (4)
2
Fig. 1(a) shows a comparison of the estimated (dots) PSDF of a simulated turbulent wind
record at a height of 40 m for 25 m/s, and the theoretical (solid line) PSDF. The set of numerical
simulations of wind speeds were developed with the academic software SimVT Pro [23] for an
averaging period of 10 minutes. Fig. 1(b) shows a typical time history of turbulent wind forces.

a) b)
Fig. 1. Results of the simulation: a) comparison of PSDFs,
b) time history of turbulent wind forces for 25 m/s at 40 m height

4.2. Forces acting on the blades

It is considered that the WT’s rotor is oriented in the principal wind direction and only the
longitudinal wind component is used for the analysis. The aerodynamics effects on the blades are
neglected, assuming that the total force on the rotor is concentrated at the hub position. The
complete methodology can be found in [19]. Fig. 2 shows the rotor force for a 25 m/s wind speed
(a), acting at the hub height (b).

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 STRUCTURAL CAPACITY OF A WIND TURBINE TOWER CONSIDERING FATIGUE DAMAGE OVER TIME.
INDIRA INZUNZA-ARAGÓN, SONIA E. RUIZ, ADRIÁN POZOS-ESTRADA

a) b)
Fig. 2. Wind time series force for 25 m/s at hub’s height

4.3. Fatigue analysis

Stress time histories at the tower’s base are obtained from Transient Dynamic Analysis for
each set of the complete wind speed interval, using ANSYS software [24]. In order to perform the
fatigue analysis, the ASTM methodology [25] for simple Rainflow counting cycles has been
implemented to obtain the effective stress and the number of cycles, corresponding to each wind
speed. As an example, Fig. 3 shows the stress history corresponding to 25 m/s. The signal is
equivalent to a constant stress amplitude of 1.80E+07 Pa and 302.5 cycles.
Wind speed scenarios are simulated with a probability distribution function that fits the wind
speeds at the region of interest and at rotor’s height, for the WT lifetime. Jaramillo and Borja [26]
have proved that the bimodal Weibull probability distribution is the best fit for the wind speeds in
La Ventosa. In addition, the hurricane occurrence has been approached using historical
information [27]. Fig. 4 shows the annual wind speed probability distribution.

Fig. 3. Stress time series at the tower’s base plate, Fig. 4. Annual wind speeds at
corresponding to 25 m/s La Ventosa [26]

The fatigue analysis starts once we have: a) all the wind speeds for the entire WT lifetime,
b) the effective stresses, c) the number of cycles for each wind speeds, and d) the material
characteristics. The damage level is obtained with the ratio of the number of cycles and the total
fatigue number of cycles for the acting wind speed. In subsequent steps, an effective number of
cycles is calculated using a transfer stress factor. The complete procedure is fully detailed on [17].
Fig. 5 shows, on the left side, the cumulative damage of the plate at the tower’s base over time,
considering different cut off fatigue cycles: from 1×108 to 1×109. The right side of Fig. 5 shows
the cumulative damage curve corresponding to the median values of the results and its fitting.

4.4. Structural capacity

Non Linear Dynamic Analyses were performed to get the structural response for the recently
installed WT and after 20, 24, 30, 40, 43 and 47 years of been installed. These years represent 3,

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 STRUCTURAL CAPACITY OF A WIND TURBINE TOWER CONSIDERING FATIGUE DAMAGE OVER TIME.
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5, 10, 35, 50 and 80 percent of damage at the tower’s base. The structural demand parameter is
the displacement at the top of the tower. For the analysis, large deflections and material
non-linearity were considered.

a) b)
Fig. 5. Cumulative damage over the years

In order to simulate the loss of structural capacity, the fatigue effects were characterized with
a thickness decrease of the plates. Fig. 6 shows the median values of the structural capacity for
different time intervals of interest.

Fig. 6. Structural capacity over the years

5. Conclusions

A methodology for the capacity evaluation of steel wind towers over time, considering
deterioration due to fatigue effects, was presented. It was illustrated by the analysis of a wind
tower located in La Ventosa, Oaxaca, Mexico.
The analysis results indicate that the structural capacity is not considerably affected when the
structural damage is below 10 per cent. After this value, the structural capacity decreases as time
increases. If an ultimate displacement of 12 m is considered, the structural capacity reduction is
15 %, 25 % and 88 % for damage levels of 35 %, 50 % and 80 %, respectively.

Acknowledgements

This research had economic support from the DGAPA-UNAM under the project
PAPIIT-IN103517.

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INDIRA INZUNZA-ARAGÓN, SONIA E. RUIZ, ADRIÁN POZOS-ESTRADA

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