BladeFS: Blade Fatigue Static

BladeFS (Blade Fatigue Static) is a MATLAB^® script that was developed to determine loads and deflections associated with fatigue and static structural testing of wind turbine blades using matrix based finite element analysis.

Features include blade property and target test load generation functions, saddle and winch optimization routines, a simple graphical user interface, an easy to manipulate Excel input file, and Word and Excel summary output files.

The finite element model of the wind turbine blade utilizes rigid-body, lumped mass, Timoshenko beam theory with six degrees of freedom (flapwise displacement and rotation, edgewise displacement and rotation, axial displacement, and torsion). Blade property and target test load generation functions are based on historical data from horizontal-axis, three-bladed, land-based, utility scale wind turbines with blades ranging 9 to 60 meters in length. Mode shapes and excitation frequencies are computed using Eigen analysis with a cantilever beam boundary condition (twist coupled using Euler angles).

This software was developed by Michael J. Desmond Jr. of NREL.

Downloads

BladeFS Change Log (v1.00.00a-mjd, 1 KB, 24-May-2010)

This is a list of changes made to the code for each version release.

BladeFS User's Guide (v1.00, 1.7 MB, 24-May-2010)

This is the user's guide. Please refer to it when trying to understand how to run the program.