FATIGUE TESTING DEVICE FOR WIND TURBINE BLADE TESTING, A METHOD OF TESTING WIND TURBINE BLADES AND A CONTROL SYSTEM FOR A BLADE TESTING ACTUATOR
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Abstract
The invention provides a fatigue exciter for wind turbine blades. Wind turbine blades require excitation at or near their natural frequency to induce bending moments that simulate in service loadings and must be easily controllable and with the minimum of unnecessary added mass or force. The invention provides a device and a method by which force controlled feedback is used for finding an optimal excitation frequency. This force could be provided e.g. by a digital signal generator.
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Citations
41 Claims
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1-20. -20. (canceled)
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21. A fatigue testing device for a wind turbine blade, the blade having a hub end and a tip end and a longitudinal axis, the device comprising:
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a ground supported bench configured to have the hub end of the blade operably fixed thereto such that the blade is cantilevered therefrom, and a ground supported actuator spaced from said bench and configured to be connected to the blade at a position between the hub end and the tip end of the blade, said bench and said actuator configured to support the blade such that the longitudinal axis of the blade is in a generally horizontal attitude, said actuator configured to reciprocatingly translate the blade at an excitation frequency in a direction generally perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the blade and generally normal to the ground, said actuator configured to be attached to the blade in such a manner that the structural dynamics characteristics of the blade cantilevered from said bench and with said actuator attached thereto are substantially the same as they would be were the blade only cantilevered from said bench. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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Specification