A project to develop a new twin-axis wind turbine blade fatigue testing method – aimed at reducing fatigue test times by almost a half and overall test times by a quarter – has achieved an important milestone.
The software being developed by the Glasgow-based Offshore Renewable Energy agency (ORE Catapult) has received certification from DNV GL, the world’s largest resource of independent energy experts and certification body.
The two year collaborative knowledge transfer partnership project between ORE and Durham University, is developing a method to optimise the design of fatigue tests – which are used to demonstrate that a blade can survive its design lifetime – and enable bi-axial blade testing.
Certification of the ORE agency software by DNV GL provides vital assurance to clients that the results the new test method will generate will conform to industry standards and guidelines.
This paves the way for the next phase of the project, which is to use the software to demonstrate a bi-axial test at full scale using the Catapult’s blade test facility in Blyth, Northumberland.
Peter Greaves, Research Structural Engineer – Blades, commented: “The twin-axis blade fatigue testing software allows us to gather all of the information that we need in order to design a blade test in a fraction of the time that it currently takes, whilst giving the customer confidence that the results conform to the relevant standards.”
Ignacio Marti, ORE Innovation & Research Director, added: “This is a significant development which highlights and strengthens the importance and impact that research and innovation can have on better informing and improving our test programmes, which in turn has a positive impact on the client and the wider offshore renewable energy industry.”
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