When the new Large Scale Facility placed at DTU Risø Campus opens on November 7th 2017, it also marks the beginning of a new way of testing wind turbine blades.

Blatigue is a project carried out by DTU Wind Energy alongside Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Blade Test Centre, R&D, Olsen Wings, DNV GL Danmark, DONG Energy Wind Power and Zebicon. The aim of the project is to improve fatigue testing of wind turbine blades.

Better tests
The fatigue testing we can do today is not realistic and does not match up with real life, says Kim Branner, who is in charge of the project.

"There is in particular one challenge with the fatigue tests we are doing today. They do not represent the real world very well, as they only expose wind turbine blades for strain in one direction at a time. In fact, blades are exposed to strains in several different directions at the same time. Today’s test does not take that into consideration,” explains Kim Branner.

The project is supported by EUDP (Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Program).

Facts about Large Scale Facility:

• Large Scale Facility is a part of CASMaT (Villum Center for Advanced Structural and Material Testing).
• Large Scale Facility is financed by The Danish Building and Property Agency. The building entails equipment for 20 million Danish kroner finansed by the foundation Villum Fonden.
• The building is placed at DTU Risø Campus.
• CASMaT opens on November 7th 2017.
• CASMaT is a collaboration between DTU Wind Energy, DTU Civil Engineering and DTU Mechanical Engineering.