Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC

Scott Hughes

Jason Cotrell

Scott Lambert

Jay Tillay Johnson

Darris White

Robert Thresher

Walter Musial

Sandy Butterfield

An apparatus () for fatigue testing elongate test articles () including wind turbine blades through forced or resonant excitation of the base () of the test articles (). The apparatus () includes a testing platform or foundation (). A blade support () is provided for retaining or supporting a base () of an elongate test article (), and the blade support () is pivotally mounted on the testing platform () with at least two degrees of freedom of motion relative to the testing platform (). An excitation input assembly () is interconnected with the blade support () and includes first and second actuators () that act to concurrently apply forces or loads to the blade support (). The actuator forces are cyclically applied in first and second transverse directions. The test article () responds to shaking of its base () by oscillating in two, transverse directions ().

Wind turbine blade testing system using base excitation

An apparatus () for fatigue testing test articles () including wind turbine blades. The apparatus () includes a test stand () that rigidly supports an end () of the test article (). An actuator assembly () is attached to the test article () and is adapted for substantially concurrently imparting first and second forcing functions in first and second directions on the test article (), with the first and second directions being perpendicular to a longitudinal axis. A controller () transmits first and second sets of displacement signals () to the actuator assembly () at two resonant frequencies of the test system (). The displacement signals () initiate the actuator assembly () to impart the forcing loads to concurrently oscillate the test article () in the first and second directions. With turbine blades, the blades () are resonant tested concurrently for fatigue in the flapwise and edgewise directions.

Dual-axis resonance testing of wind turbine blades

A system () for fatigue testing wind turbine blades () through forced or resonant excitation of the base () of a blade (). The system () includes a test stand () and a restoring spring assembly () mounted on the test stand (). The restoring spring assembly () includes a primary spring element () that extends outward from the test stand () to a blade mounting plate () configured to receive a base () of blade (). During fatigue testing, a supported base () of a blade () may be pivotally mounted to the test stand () via the restoring spring assembly (). The system () may include an excitation input assembly () that is interconnected with the blade mounting plate () to selectively apply flapwise, edgewise, and/or pitch excitation forces. The restoring spring assembly () may include at least one tuning spring member () positioned adjacent to the primary spring element () used to tune the spring constant or stiffness of the primary spring element () in one of the excitation directions.

Base excitation testing system using spring elements to pivotally mount wind turbine blades

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Scott Hughes