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ECN publication
Title:
PRODETO-computer program: theory and program structure
 
Author(s):
 
Published by: Publication date:
ECN Solar Energy 1998
 
ECN report number: Document type:
ECN-C--97-093 ECN publication
 
Number of pages: Full text:
55 Download PDF  

Abstract:
Within the project PRODETO computer tools were developed by which thestructural reliability of fatigue loaded wind turbine blades can be analysed. The PRODETO software consists of the programs RAINSTAT and FATSTAT and the source code damage.for which has to be linked to a commercially available computer program for component reliability analysis, such as RELIABOI and STRUREL. The theoretical background and the structure of the software are presented in this report. The current version of the software is mainly focused at fatigue damage due to the flapwise bending moment in the blade. Because the flapwise bending moment often appears to have a distribution which resembles a Weibull distribution it is natural to start out with a Weibull distribution and subject it to a slightly non-linear transformation to something that fits well with the measured or calculated data. A number of such models are available but the main problem is that they are very computer intensive. As the 3-parameter Weibull distribution provides a good fit to the data and does not cause a high computer load it was chosen for use in the PRODETO software. Furthermore, a procedure for the calibration of the partial safety factors for fatigue loading is outlined for a site-specific wind turbine. This procedure is taken from Part 2 of the EWTS-I project 'Calibration of safety factors'. As the requirement generally turns out to be on the product of the load factor gammaf and the material factor gammam, the calibration results in the required value for gammafgammam when the safety level is prescribed. A method is presented to determine a particularly robust set of partial safety factors among the infinite number of sets that fulfill the requirement. 22 refs.


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