Accepted Manuscript

Reliability analysis of blade of the offshore wind turbine supported by the float-
ing foundation

Liu Liqin, Bian Hengdong, Du Zunfeng, Xiao Changshui, Guo Ying, Jin
Weichen

PII: S0263-8223(18)31463-6
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2018.12.036
Reference: COST 10499

To appear in: Composite Structures

Received Date: 2 May 2018

Revised Date: 29 September 2018
Accepted Date: 19 December 2018

Please cite this article as: Liqin, L., Hengdong, B., Zunfeng, D., Changshui, X., Ying, G., Weichen, J., Reliability
analysis of blade of the offshore wind turbine supported by the floating foundation, Composite Structures (2018),
doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compstruct.2018.12.036

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 Reliability analysis of blade of the offshore wind turbine supported by the floating foundation
Liu Liqin1, Bian Hengdong1, Du Zunfeng1, Xiao Changshui1, Guo Ying1, Jin Weichen1
1
State Key Laboratory of Hydraulic Engineering Simulation and Safety, Tianjin 300072, China

Abstract: The reliabilities of the offshore wind turbine blades supported by the floating foundation
are studied. The motion of the floating wind turbine is calculated by the Fast software, and the
structure model of the blade is established by the Ansys software. The failure probabilities of the blade
root overload, the blade root fatigue and the excessive displacement of the blade tip are calculated.
The fixed wind turbine blades and the floating wind turbine blades are compared to investigate the
influences of the floating foundation motion on the blade reliabilities. The results show that, the
failure probability of blades supported by the floating foundation is greater than that supported by the
fixed foundation. The floating wind turbine blades with different piezoelectric material are analyzed to
investigate the influences of the piezoelectric material on the blade reliabilities. It is shown that for the
blade with piezoelectric material, the stress of blade root and the displacement of blade tip both
decrease, and the probabilities of fatigue failure and overloaded of the blade root decrease
significantly.

Keywords: offshore wind turbine; blade; floating foundation; failure probability; piezoelectric
material

1. Introduction
With the development of the offshore wind power, the operation, maintenance and risk problems
of the offshore wind turbine become increasingly prominent. Previous studies have shown that the
operation and the maintenance of offshore wind farms cost 20%-30% of the electricity cost [1]. The
reliability analysis and the risk assessment of offshore wind turbine were carried out by a number of
scholars. Etemaddar et al. studied the fault mode of onshore and offshore wind turbine yaw systems
[2]. The results show that sensor failure is the main risk source. Combing FTA (Fault Tree Analysis)
and FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis), Bai Xu et al. analyzed the risk of the hoisting and
transportation of the offshore wind turbine [3], and gave the guidance of operation and management.
Considering the weather factors, Marugán et al. established the fault tree of each system of the
offshore wind turbine and proposed the maintenance method correspondingly [4].
Researches show that the risks associated with the blade system will lead to larger economic
losses and downtime. The blade with typical slender structure is the key structure of the wind turbine
to capture wind energy. With the wind turbine power increases, the length of the blade increases. For
example, the blade of DTU10MW wind turbine, which is being designed, its length is more than 90
meters [5]. Under the action of complicated environment loads, the larger wind turbine blades are
easier to vibrate, the anti-fatigue property of the material is greatly reduced, and the blades will also
break more easily. Chou et al. analyzed the structure safety of the blade under extreme conditions.
They found that the main damage forms are the envelope delaminating and the cracking of front and
rear flanges [6]. Dong et al. studied the mechanism of salt fog corrosion when the offshore wind
turbine cracked [7]. The results showed that water molecule diffusion and ultraviolet radiation were
the main reasons for material aging and blades erosion. Andrawus et al. studied the corrosion
resistance and insulation property of wind turbine blade coatings [8]. Wang and Chen studied the
1
damage of offshore wind turbine blades [9], they found that under the same intensity of typhoon, the
damage risk of blades of offshore floating wind turbine is higher than that of fixed wind turbine
nearshore. Liao and Yue designed the fatigue load system of eccentric rotating masses, which provided
an effective method for fatigue monitoring of wind turbine blades [10]. Toft et al studied the reliability
assessment of wind turbine blades. The effect of the defect distribution was analyzed. The results
showed that the reliability of the blade decreased when defects were included [11]. Sørensen
established an uncertainty modeling for reliability assessment of the structural components of the wind
turbine such as tower, blades, substructure and foundation [12]. Tazi et al developed a hybrid
cost-FMEA method to assess the reliability of the wind turbine, and the reliability analysis of gearbox
and rotor-blades were presented [13].
The researchers also studied the methods to improvement the reliability of the large wind turbine
blades. Fitzgerald et al studied the structural reliability of the large wind turbine blade by using a
combined structural dynamic models and probabilistic assessment tools. The active tuned mass
dampers (ATMDs) was equipped on the wind turbine towers to improve the reliability of the blades.
The results showed that the probability of exceeding a given displacement at the rated wind speed was
decreased largely [14]. Liu and Huang developed a method to optimize the layers of the blade
structure, proposed the structure of the primary beam with trapezoidal cross section, reduced the
consumption of the blade root material and improved the structure safety [15].
In order to enhance the structure strength of the blade, referring to the existing smart helicopter
blades, piezoelectric ceramic is embedded into the key position of the blade to decrease the blade
vibration [16]. The piezoelectric ceramic is deformed and polarized when the blade is deformed. Thus
the charge is generated on the piezoelectric ceramic and the material properties of the blade are
changed. Then the stress and deformation of blade are changed correspondingly. The piezoelectric
ceramic will recover its initial state when the excitation loads are removed, and the material properties
of the blade will be recovered too [17].
There are some initial research on the reliability of the offshore floating wind turbine. Kolios et al
studied the reliability of floating foundation for vertical axis wind turbines [18]. Hallowell et al
studied the reliability of mooring lines and shared anchors of floating offshore wind turbines [19].
Kang et al studied the Risk assessment of floating offshore wind turbine by using the
correlation-FMEA method [20]. Zhang et al. carried out dynamic fault tree analysis of floating wind
turbine and discussed the logical order of the related faults [21]. However, offshore floating wind
turbines developed relatively late, the risk assessment of the floating wind turbine was not enough due
to the lack of sufficient engineering and experimental data. When their foundation undergoes motions
of 6 DOFs (degree of freedom) under the loads of wave, wind, and current, and the unsteadiness on
the blade increase, the peak loads and fatigue damage of the blades increased compared to the onshore
and fixed -bottom offshore wind turbines [22]. In this paper, the numerical method is used to calculate
the failure probabilities of the blades of the offshore floating wind turbine, and this will provide the
data supporting for the risk assessment of blades of floating wind turbine.
2. The fault tree of blades of the floating wind turbine
The blade structure of the wind turbine mainly consists of four parts, which are blade root, web
plate, primary beam and envelope, as shown in Fig.1.

2
 Fig. 1 The structure of blades [23]
The structure failures of blade of offshore wind turbine mainly include fatigue damage, general
deficiencies, seriously damage and breakage accidents [24]. Fatigue failures include the mechanical,
corrosion and thermal fatigues. Mechanical fatigue is the blade damage due to the alternating stress.
Corrosion fatigue is the cracking or damage of the blade experiencing extreme temperature and
humidity changes. Thermal fatigue is the blade fatigue damage due to the cycling stress caused by the
alternating temperature. General deficiencies include the surface erosion, local blisters, slight cracks,
and so on [25]. Severe damage includes lightning damage, front-end cracking, envelope peel, rear
edge cracking, etc. Meanwhile, the manufacturing defects also lead to blade failures, and they could
be the most important root cause for blade failures. If the damaged area of envelope is too large, the
blades can’t work normally and the risk of repair is relatively high. When the blade is broken, it must
be replaced as it completely loses its function. For pitch systems, the main faults include the wear and
tear of the pitch gear, failure of the pitch reducer, the bearing damage, overheating of the reducer, ect
[2].
Based on the understanding of the fault types and failure reasons of blades [20,21,26] and
according to the design load requirement of IEC 61400 [27], the fault tree analysis model of the blade
system of the wind turbines is established, as shown in Fig. 2. The symbolic descriptions, the number
and names of the events presented in Fig.2 are shown in Tables 1 and 2.

3
 blade system failure

wheel
blade failure
failure

blade
damage 14 15 16
13

blade structure pitch system

damage failure

front and trailing edge blade shell blade tip pitch control wrong pitch
damage damage damage failure angle
4

wrong wind
1 2 3 5 6 7 8 informatiom
9 10 9

11 12

Fig.2 The fault tree of blade system

Table1 The symbolic descriptions

Symbol Meaning Sign Meaning
and Bottom event
or Intermediate event

Table 2 The events explanations

No. Event No. Event No. Event
1 Fatigue of blade root 7 Excessive displacement 13 Extreme wind load
2 8 The blades struck by 14 The cracks of hub
Blade erosion
lightning surface
3 Edge delamination 9 The vibration of pitch 15 The unbalanced
of the blade system attack angel
4 Manufacturing 10 The failure 16 Loosening of hubs
defects of pitch system connection
5 Loose and broken of 11 /
Wind vane failure /
connecting bolts
6 Blade root overload 12 Anemometer failure / /

For the models of failure probabilities of each event, there are random probability model (the
4
failure probability models of motor, gearbox and control circuit), time-dependent probability model
(the failure probability models of mechanical parts, such as motor brake) and physical parameters
reliability model (structures bearing the ultimate or cyclic loads).
In this paper, the physical parameters reliability models of the blade structure are estimated (for
the events 1, 6, and 7, referring to the sections 7.6.3, 7.6.2 and 7.6.5 of IEC 61400) by the methods of
numerical simulation and the probability statistics.

3 Motion and stress calculation of blade of the floating wind turbine

3.1 Motion equations of the floating foundation
The six-degree-of-freedom motion equations of the floating foundation are as follows,
 M  A  x  t   0 h  t   x   d  D1 f  x   K x  q t , x, x 
t
(1)

where, x,x,x are the displacement, velocity and acceleration vector of the floating foundation. M is
the mass matrix of the wind turbine system, A is the additional mass matrix of wind turbine system
when frequency tends to infinity, h  t    is the hysteresis function, D1 is the damping matrix of
other components, K is restore stiffness matrix, and q is the external excitation loads, including wave
and wind loads.
3.2 Wind loads
The BEM (blade element momentum) theory is used to calculate the aerodynamic loads while the
wind turbine is in the status of power generation [28]. Taking the blade element as binary airfoil,
supposing that there is no mutual flow interference, the force and moment acting on each blade
element can be derived as follows,
1
dQ1  dL cos   dD sin   V 2 Nc  CL cos   Cd sin   dr (2)
2
1
dQ2  dL sin   dD cos    NV 2  CL sin   Cd cos   crdr (3)
2
where,  is air density, L is the lift force acting on blade element, D is the drag force acting
on the blade element, V is the relative speed of the blade, N is the number of leaf elements, and
c is the chord length of blade element section. CL and Cd are lift and drag coefficients of the
wind blade, respectively.  is inflow angle, r is the distance between the blade and the hub
center, and dr is span length of each blade element. The forces and moments acting on the entire
blade can be obtained by integrating Eqs. (2) and (3) along the spanwise direction of the blade.
The static wind pressure F1 and the wind heeling moment M 1 acting on the tower and the
blades (in the parked state) are calculated according to the standard of API (2005) using the following
formulas [29],
F1  Cs  Ch  S  0.613 Ve 2 ( N ) (4)
M1  F1  H ( N  m) (5)
where Cs is the shape coefficient of wind-bearing component, Ch is the height coefficient of the
wind-bearing component, S is the projected area of the wind-bearing component in the wind

5
blowing direction, H is the vertical distance from the design water surface to the centroid of the
components, and Ve is the average wind velocity at the reference height (the distance from the
center of the blade to the surface of the water is taken as the reference height in this paper).
3.3 Wave loads
For the small-scale components, the wave loads are solved by Morrison formula [30]. The
transverse hydrodynamic force per unit length can be written as follows,
D2 D2 1
dF  w uw  w Ca (uw  ub )  wCD D(uw  ub ) | uw  ub | (6)
4 4 2
where, W is the density of sea water, D is the diameter of the foundation components, u w is the
transverse wave particle velocity, and ub is the local transverse body velocity. CD and Ca are

the drag and added mass coefficients of the foundation components, respectively.
For the large-scale components, the potential flow theory is used to calculate the wave loads. The
first order wave forces are considered and calculated by following formula,
Fwave _1  t   Re[a exp i t    F1  ] (7)
where, a ,  and  donate the amplitude, frequency and phase of wave component, respectively.
3.4 The calculation process
Fast software is usually used to calculate the motion of floating wind turbines. However, the
complex structure characteristic of the blade can’t be considered in this software. In this paper, the
software of Wadam, Fast and Ansys are combined to analysis the structure characteristic of the wind
turbine blade supported by the floating foundation. Wadam is used to calculate the hydrodynamics of
floating foundation, and the results are inputted into the Fast, which is used to calculate the motion of
the blade and the aerodynamic loads acting on the blade. Ansys is used to establish the fine model of
blade structure. The blade root motions obtained by the Fast is inputted into the Ansys model as a
boundary condition. Considering the time-varying aerodynamic load, the stress and displacement of
the blade are calculated by the Ansys. The specific calculation process is shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3 The calculation process

6
4 Calculation theory of reliability of the wind blade
4.1 Reliability theory
Under the prescribed conditions, the probability that the system accomplishing the established
tasks is called reliability ( ), and the mathematical expression [31] is,
(8)
where, is the system ability, is the load effect, P is probability. The corresponding failure
probability can be written as,
(9)
The following relationship can be obtained,
(10)
Assuming the continuous random variables and are independent of each other, their PDFs

(probability density functions) are and f S ( s) respectively, and their distribution functions are

and FS () respectively, and the reliability and the failure probability can be written as,

(11)

(12)

If the continuous random variables and are the correlation variables, and their joint PDF is
f RS (r , s) , the failure probability can be written as
(13)
The distribution functions of and are very important in the research of system reliability.
There are some distribution functions that are commonly used, such as exponential, normal, lognormal
and Weibull distribution functions. In the following calculations, the distribution type and the
expressions of the failure probability are analyzed according to the numerical simulation in the time
domain.

4.2 The failure probability of fatigue of blade root

For the fatigue of blade root, the rain flow counting method is used to analyze the failure
probability based on the time histories of the stress of the blade root. The most dangerous node is first
ascertained and then the mean stress, the stress amplitude and the occurrence times of each stress
amplitude are calculated for this node, and the PDF of the stress amplitude is expressed by Dirlik
expression [32], as follows,

7
 Z Z2 Z2
D1  Q D2 Z  2 R2 
e  2 e  D3 Ze 2
Q
f s  xs  
R
(14)
2  m0 
1
2

where, xs is stress amplitude, xm , Di (i  1, 2,3) , R , Q ,  and Z are as follows,

m m 
xm  1  2 
1
2
, D1 

2 xm   2 , D2 
1    D1  D12
, D3  1  D1  D2 ,
m0  m4  1  2 1 R

  xm  D12 1.25   D3  D2 R  m0 xs
R , Q ,  , Z .
1    D1  D12
D1 m0 m4 2 m0
where m0 , m1 , m2 , and m4 are the zeroth, first, second, and fourth order moments of the stress
power spectral density.
Assuming the fatigue limit obeys a normal distribution, the failure probability is given by,

1   x   2   xn 
PF   exp   n 2 2    f s  xs  dxs  dxn (15)
 2 V   2V     
where, μ and  1 is the mean value and standard deviation of the fatigue limit, respectively, and
V  1 / u .
4.3 The failure probability of blade root overload
The blade root stress is assumed to obey the lognormal distribution, the reliability of blade root
overload is expressed as follows [33],
1 k 
PR    ln  (16)
 s1
 x m 
where, Ф is a normal distribution, s1 is the shape parameter of the lognormal distribution, k is the
allowable stress, and xm is the maximum stress. When the allowable stress of the blade root has been
determined, the probability that the stress value of the blade root exceed the allowable stress can be
calculated by using Eq.(16).
For the offshore floating wind turbine, the wave and wind loads are time-varying, the dynamic
reliability should be considered. The reliability formula of blade root overload considering the
dynamic effect is as follows,
PR  e  R 
- 1-P  T
(17)
where, α is the annual cycles times of the maximum stress, T is service time.
4.4 The failure probability of excessive displacement of blade tip
The time history of the displacement of blade tip are calculated numerically by the Ansys
software, and the displacement amplitude and corresponding occurrence times are counted. Then the
probability density function of the displacement amplitude are simulated approximately. The
displacement amplitude is dealt with as normal distribution in the following calculation, and the
formula is as follows,
1 [  1 2 ( xd  d )2 ]
f d ( xd )  exp 2 d (18)
 d 2
8
where,  d and  d is the mean value and standard deviation of the displacement amplitude,
respectively.
Then the failure probability of excessive displacement of blade tip can be obtained by integrating
Eq.(18) considering the safety limitation of the displacement amplitude of the blade tip.
The uncertainties are very important in the reliability research. The uncertainties factors include
data, model, statistical parameters, etc. In this paper, three failure events (1, 6, and 7 of table 2) are
studied by the numerical simulation. Mainly two uncertainties factors are involved, they are model
and statistical uncertainties. The model uncertainty is reduced by fine numerical simulation. The
6-DOFs motions of the floating foundation are considered, and the hydrodynamic loads of the floater
are calculated by Wadam. The aerodynamic loads and motions of the wind turbine system are
calculated by the Fast. The fine structure model of blade is established by the Ansys, and the loads and
motions of blade are transferred from the Fast. The three kinds of software are popular used in the
fields of ocean engineering and wind turbine with high accuracy. So the accuracy of calculation can be
ensured. The statistical uncertainty is reduced by long time numerical simulation to increase the
samples.

5 Example analysis
5.1 Parameters of the floating wind turbine
NREL OC4 semi-submersible floating wind turbine is used as an example, and the main
parameters are shown in Table 3 [34].

Table 3 Main parameters of the floating wind turbine

Items Values
Rated power 5MW
Number of blades 3
Power transmission High-speed / multi-stage gearbox
Diameters of the blade and hubs 126 m, 3 m
Height of hub 90 m
Cut-in, rated and cut-out wind speeds 3 m/s, 11.40 m/s, 25 m/s
Cut-in and rated rotational speeds 6.90 r/min, 12.10 r/min
Rated speed of the tip 80 m/s
Weight of the rotor 1.10 kg
Weight of the nacelle 2.40 kg
Weight of the tower 3.47 kg
Weight of one hub 7.29 kg
Weight of the floating foundation 1.35 kg
Draft of the floating foundation 20.00 m
Vertical center of gravity of the system
13.46 m
(below the water surface)

5.2 Wave loads and aerodynamic loads

In this section, the wave loads acting on the floating foundation, and the aerodynamic loads
9
acting on the blade are calculated. The influence of the control system is not considered here.
The wave loads acting on the foundation are numerically calculated according to the Jonswap
wave spectrum. The expression of Jonswap wave spectrum is given by,

 1948    0.159T  12 

1/3
2
S   =319.34 4 5   3.3exp   
p
4
(19)
Tp   (Tp )   2 w 2

 
where, 1/3 is the significant wave height, Tp is the peak period of spectrum,  w is peak shape
parameter and is given by following formula,
 w =0.07，   p

 (20)
 w =0.09，   p

where  p =2 / Tp .
The hydrodynamic model of the floating foundation is shown in Fig. 4. It was built by GeniE of
Sesam software, the panel model is used to calculate the hydrodynamics of the large scale structure
based on the potential flow theory [30], and the Morison model is used to calculate the hydrodynamics
of the small scale structure based on the Morison formula. Then the Wadam was used to carry out the
hydrodynamic calculation. The load transfer functions and hydrodynamic parameters are inputted into
the Fast.
The aerodynamic load is calculated by Aerodyn code based on the BEM (blade element
momentum) theory, considering the dynamic stall model, wind shear and tower shadow effect.
According to the NREL, each blade is divided into 17 segments from blade root to tip [35], and the
aerodynamic pressure of the aerodynamic center are outputted for every two segments.
The motions of the wind turbine system are also calculated by the Fast, and motions of the blade
root are inputted to Ansys model of the blade as the moving boundaries, and the corresponding
aerodynamic loads at each time steps are applied to each segment of the structural model of blade to
complete the transient structural calculation in the Ansys.
The wind and wave are in the same direction, which is along the surge direction of the floating
foundation. The wave loads transfer functions of heave and pitch are shown in Fig. 5.
6E+06 4.0E+06
transfer function of pitch (N·m/m)

transfer function of heave (N/m)

3.5E+06
5E+06
3.0E+06
4E+06
transfer function in pitch
2.5E+06
transfer function in heave
3E+06 2.0E+06

1.5E+06
2E+06
1.0E+06
1E+06
5.0E+05

0E+00 0.0E+00
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
period(s)

Fig.4 The model of floating foundation. Fig.5 Transfer functions of wave loads.
The aerodynamic loads acting on the blade are numerically calculated according to the Kaimal
wind spectrum. The expression of Kaimal wind spectrum is given by,

10
 I 2 vm l
Sw 1   (21)
1  1 .51  l v/m 
5 / 3

where, I is turbulence intensity of the wind, 1 is wind frequency, vm is mean wind speed within
10 min, the l is given by,

20h h  30m
l (22)
600 h  30m
where，h is the calculation height of the wind speed.
The parameters of three conditions are shown in Table 4, the rated, cut-out and the extreme wind
speeds (11.40 m/s, 25 m/s, and 51.5 m/s) are considered. The aerodynamic loads of different blade
sections and floating foundation motion are calculated for the three conditions. The pressure of the 1st
and the 17th segments of the blade are shown in Fig.6, and heave and pitch responses of the floating
foundation are shown in Fig. 7.
Table 4 Environmental parameters
Condition Peak period of wave Significant wave Mean wind speed State of the wind
spectrum (s) height (m) of hub (m/s) turbine
LC1 10.12 3.24 11.4 Rated wind speed
(operation)
LC2 11.38 6.02 25.0 Cut-out wind speed
(operation)
LC3 14.10 12.90 51.5 Extreme wind speed
(parked)

800 8000
1st section 17th section
700
7000
600
pressure (Pa)

6000
pressure (Pa)

500
5000
400
4000
300
3000
200
2000
100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
time (s) time (s)

(a) 1st section (b) 17th section

Fig. 6 Aerodynamics of the blade
5.0 8
heave of foundation (m)

LC1 LC1
pitch of foundation (°)

LC2 LC2
LC3
6
2.5 LC3
4
0.0 2

0
-2.5
-2

-5.0 -4
200 300 400 500 600 700 800 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
time (s) time (s)

11
 (a) Heave (b) Pitch
Fig. 7 Response of the floating foundation

5.3 The model of the blade structure

5.3.1 Normal blades
Normal blades are made of mixture of fiber reinforced plastics and epoxy resin. The material
parameters are shown in Table 5. The blade structure is modeled and calculated by Ansys and
simulated with Shell 181. The blade is divided into three parts, that are main girder, the front and rear
flanges and web. To compare with the results of the piezoelectric material blade in section 5.3.2, the
thickness of the blade is uniformly taken as 20 mm in the first quarter of the blade root, which is
combined by 8 layers and laminated by [0/45 ° / -45 °], as shown in Fig. 8. The rest of the blade is not
layered. The thickness of main girder is 20 mm, the thickness of the front and rear flanges is 15 mm,
and the web thickness is 10 mm. The structural model is established by the full scale, and is meshed
with 0.5m length for each element, as shown in Fig. 9, where the front and back flanges are divided
into 2128 grids, webs 826 grids, and main beam 502 grids, and the convergent calculation results can
be obtained.

Table 5 Material parameters of blades [6]

Elastic modulus(Gpa) Poisson's ratio Shear modulus(Gpa)

Ex Ey Ez μxy μyz μxz Gxy Gyz Gxz

44.65 12.96 12.96 0.5 0.5 0.5 4.32 4.32 4.32

Fig. 8 Layers form Fig. 9 The mesh of the blade

5.3.2 Piezoelectric material blades
The influences of piezoelectric material on the failure of blades structure of the floating wind
turbine are analyzed. Several piezoelectric materials with different elastic moduli are considered as
shown in Table 6.

Table 6 Parameters of piezoelectric material [36]

Item Initial state State 1 State 2 State 3 State 4

12
 Elastic modulus (Gpa) 44.8 80 110 140 170
Density (kg/m³) 1.95×10³ 5.7×10³ 5.7×10³ 5.7×10³ 5.7×10³
Poisson’s ratio 0.29 0.29 0.29 0.29 0.29

With reference to the smart blade of the fixed wind turbine, the piezoelectric material is arranged
on the envelope at the first quarter of the blade root [37]. The second and seventh layers in Fig. 8 are
replaced with piezoelectric materials, as shown in Fig. 10. The model and mesh are similar as section
5.3.2. When root stress of the blade reaches the limitation (180 Mpa), the piezoelectric material is
activated. The specific calculation process is shown in Fig. 11.

Fig. 10 The piezoelectric material blade Fig. 11 Calculation process

5.4 Failure probability of blade of the floating wind turbine
In this section, three failure events of the blade are studied, they are fatigue failure of blade root
(No.1 of Table 2), stress overload of blade root (to No.6 of Table 2), and excessive displacement of
blade tip (No.7 of Table 2). The influences of floating foundation motions and blade material on these
failure probability are analyzed. In the time history responses, three hours are calculated considering
the time costs (it is enough for the stochastic analysis of ocean structures [38]), and the following
analysis is based on the calculation results of the three hours. In the analysis of root stress in the blade,
the mean stress on all layers of the composite material are measured.
5.4.1 The impact analysis of floating foundation motions
The effects of floating foundation motions on the stress and failure probability of the blade
structure are analyzed in this section. Two conditions are analyzed, namely fixed foundation and
floating foundation. For the floating wind turbine, the displacement of blade root is applied as
boundary condition and the aerodynamic load is applied as external excitation to the structural model
of the blade. The stress and the displacements of the blade are calculated, and the displacements of
blade tip and stresses of blade root of LC 2 are shown in Fig. 12. Based on the time-domain results,
the maximum and mean values of blade root stress, the amplitudes of the flapwise, edgewise of the
blade tip are further counted, as shown in Table 7.

13
 2.5

flapwise of blade tip (m)

2.60
fixed foundation fixed foundation
2.0 2.55 float foundation
float foundation

edgewise of blade tip (m)

2.50
1.5
2.45
1.0 2.40
0.18
0.5
0.17
0.0
0.16
-0.5
0.15
1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500
time (s) time (s)

(a) The flapwise of blade tip (b) The edgewise of blade tip
2.4E+08
stress of blade root (Pa)

fixed foundation
float foundation
2.0E+08

1.6E+08

1.2E+08

8.0E+07

4.0E+07
1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000
time (s)
(c) The stress of blade root
Fig. 12 Stress and displacement of the blade (LC2)

Table 7 The statistical values of stress and displacement of the blades

Amplitude of blade Amplitude of flapwise Amplitude of edgewise
Case Type root stress (mpa) of the blade tip (m) of blade tip (m)
Maximum Mean Maximum Mean Maximum Mean

Floating (a) 61.00 17.40 1.74 0.86 0.14 0.02

LC1 Fixed (b) 50.00 11.20 1.23 0.75 0.04 0.01

(a-b)/b 22.0% 55.4% 41.5% 12.4% 224.4% 87.4%

Floating (a) 111.00 28.40 2.63 1.28 0.22 0.04

LC2 Fixed (b) 62.00 17.60 2.18 1.06 0.07 0.03

(a-b)/b 79.0% 61.4% 20.6% 21.4% 198.9% 61.8%

Floating (a) 81.00 4.30 1.78 1.13 0.20 0.04

LC3
Fixed (b) 47.00 2.50 1.48 1.09 0.06 0.02

(a-b)/b 72.3% 72.0% 20.3% 3.6% 255.2% 48.1%

14
 The results show that the flapwise of the blade tip is far greater than edgewise of that. Therefore,
in the excessive displacement analyzing the flapwise of blade tip is considered. The stress of blade
root and the motion amplitude of blade tip for the floating foundation cases are all larger than those of
corresponding fixed foundation cases. The maximum edgewise amplitudes of blade tip of the floating
foundation cases are about 2 times larger than that of the fixed foundation cases.
According to the time histories of flapwise displacement of the blade tip, the occurrence
frequencies of each displacement amplitudes are counted. The statistical results of LC 2 are shown in
Fig. 13, it shows that the flapwise amplitude of the blade tip approximately obeys the normal
distribution.

(a) Floating wind turbine (b) Fixed wind turbine

Fig.13 The flapwise amplitude statistics of the blade tip (LC2)
The mean value and standard deviations of flapwise motion of the blade tip are obtained, and the
failure probability due to excessive displacement of blade tip is calculated by using Eq. (18) (the
safety limitation of 5.019 m is chosen [35], and the same value is used in section 5.4.2). The result
shows that for the LC 1 and LC 3, the failure probabilities of excessive displacement of blade tip are
less than 0.0001 for both the fixed and the floating foundations cases, thus the failure probability is
recommended to be 0.0001. For the LC 2, compared with the results of fixed foundation case, the
failure probability of floating foundation cases due to excessive displacement of blade tip increases by
82.4%, as shown in Table 8.
For the blade root stress, the rain flow counting method is used to calculate its mean value,
amplitude and occurrence times of each amplitude, and the results of LC 2 are shown in Figs.14 and
15.

15
 (a) Fixed wind turbine (b) Floating wind turbine
Fig.14 The blade root stress statistics (LC2)
0.05

0.04
Probability density

fixed wind turbine

0.03
float wind turbine

0.02

0.01

0.00
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
Amplitude of stress(Mpa)
Fig. 15 The probability density of the amplitude of blade root stress (LC2)
Dirlik method is used to calculate PDF of the stress amplitude by using Eq.(14), and the fatigue
failure probability of the blade root is then calculated by using the Eq.(15) (the same method is used in
section 5.4.2). The results are shown in Table 8. It is shown that the fatigue failure probabilities of
blade root of the floating foundation cases are much larger than those of fixed foundation cases. For
the rated and cut-out wind speeds, the fatigue failure probability of blade root of the floating wind
turbine is about 5-10 times higher than that of the fixed ones. For the extreme wind speed (the wind
turbine parks) the fatigue failure probability of blade root of the floating wind turbine is about 30%
higher than those of the fixed ones. Generally speaking, in the parked state, the fatigue risk of the
blade root is much less than that of operation state.
Substituting the maximum root stress into Eq. (17), give the values of s1=0.1[33] and k=318 MP
(the allowable stress of Epoxy / FRP hybrid material), α=1, and T=[0:0.1:25], the reliability of stress
overload of blade root is calculated, then the corresponding failure probability can be obtained, and
the results are shown in Table 8.
Summarizing above calculation results, the failure probabilities of fatigue damage of blades root,
stress overload of blade root, and excessive displacement of blade tip for the three cases (LC 1-LC 3)
are shown in Table 8.

16
 Table 8 The failure probability of the blades
The failure probability
Number Event
Fixed wind turbine Floating wind turbine
4.2 (LC1) 2.5 (LC1)
Structure fatigue of
1 1.7 (LC2) 1.6 (LC2)
blade root
2.3 (LC3) 3.1 (LC3)
1.0 (LC1) 1.0 (LC1)
Stress overload of
6 1.0 (LC2) 8.9 (LC2)
blade root
5.2 (LC3) 1.3 (LC3)
1.0 (LC1) 1.0 (LC1)
Excessive displacement of
7 1.7 (LC2) 3.1 (LC2)
blade tip
1.0 (LC3) 1.0 (LC3)

5.4.2 Influence analysis of the piezoelectric material

The effect of piezoelectric material on the failure probability of blade structure of the floating
wind turbine is analyzed in this section. The normal blade and blade with piezoelectric material are
compared, and the cut-off wind speed (LC 2) is considered. The blade root stress, the blade tip
flapwise and edgewise motions are calculated, and the results for E = 80.0 Gpa and E = 110.0 Gpa are
shown in Fig. 16. According to time-domain results, the maximum and mean values of blade root
stress and the amplitude of blade tip motions are counted. The results are shown in Table 9.
2.4 2.60
E=80.0Gpa E=110.0Gpa E=80.0Gpa
2.0
edgewise of blade tip (m)

E=110.0Gpa
flapwise of blade tip (m)

1.6 2.55

1.2
2.50
0.8

0.4
2.45
0.0

-0.4 2.40
1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500
time (s) time (s)

(a) The flapwise of blade tip (b) The edgewise of blade tip
2.0E+08
stress of blade root (Pa)

E=80Gpa E=110Gpa
1.8E+08

1.6E+08

1.4E+08

1.2E+08

1.0E+08
1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500
time (s)
(c) The stress of blade root
Fig.16 Blade root stress and blade tip displacements

17
 Table 9 The statistics of different piezoelectric materials
Amplitude of blade Amplitude of flapwise of Amplitude of edgewise the
Materials root stress (Mpa) blade tip (m) blade tip (m)
Maximum Mean Maximum Mean Maximum Mean
E=80 Gpa 73.00 20.70 2.48 1.00 0.20 0.03

E =110 Gpa 47.00 13.30 2.37 0.94 0.19 0.03

E=140 Gpa 38.00 10.60 2.29 0.92 0.18 0.04

E=170 Gpa 33.00 10.20 2.25 0.92 0.18 0.03

Table 9 shows that when the piezoelectric material is activated, the amplitudes of blade root
stress, and blade tip flapwise both decrease, while those of blade tip edgewise change less obviously.
Compared with E = 44.6 Gpa, when E = 110 Gpa, the maximum value of stress amplitude of the blade
root decreases about 58%, and the mean value of that decreases by 53%. The maximum amplitudes of
the blade tip flapwise reduced about 10% and the mean value of that decreases by 27%. With the
increase of material elastic modulus, the flapwise amplitude of blade tip decreases non-linearly.
The flapwise displacements of blade tip are counted to obtain the occurrence frequencies of each
displacement amplitudes. The statistical results are shown in Fig.17. It shows that the amplitude of
blade tip flapwise motion approximately obeys the normal distribution. According to the obtained
probability distribution, the failure probability of the blade due to excessive displacement is can be
obtained.
In the same way as section 5.4.1, the mean value, amplitude and occurrence frequencies of each
amplitude of blade root stress are calculated, as shown in Fig.18, and the corresponding probability
density of stress amplitude is shown in Fig.19. The fatigue failure probability of the blade root is
further calculated (the parameters of s1, k, α, and T are same as section 5.4.1).

(a) E=80 Gpa (b) E=110 Gpa

18
 (c) E=140 Gpa (d) E=170 Gpa
Fig. 17 Statistics of flapwise amplitude of the blade tip

(a) E=80 Gpa (b) E=110 Gpa

(c) E=140 Gpa (d) E=170 Gpa

Fig.18 Statistics of stress of the blade root

19
 0.05

E=80Gpa
0.04 E=110Gpa
E=140Gpa

Probability density
E=170Gpa
0.03

0.02

0.01

0.00
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
Amplitude of stress(Mpa)
Fig. 19 The probability density of the blade root stress
Summarizing above calculation results, the failure probabilities of fatigue of blades root, stress
overload of blade root and excessive displacement of blade tip for different piezoelectric materials are
shown in Table 10.

Table 10 The failure probability of blade with piezoelectric materials (LC2)

Failure probability
Number Event
E=80 Gpa E=110 Gpa E=140 Gpa E=170 Gpa
Fatigue damage of
1 0.00830 0.00440 0.00280 0.00190
blade root
6 Overload of blade root 0.00029 0.00013 0.00010 0.00010
Excessive displacement
7 0.00010 0.00010 0.00010 0.00010
of blade tip

Compared with the results of the normal material case, for the different piezoelectric material the
drops of maximum stress amplitudes of blade root, maximum flapwise amplitudes of blade tip, fatigue
failure probabilities of blade root and overload failure probabilities of blade root are calculated (by
using the formula of (b-a) / a, where a represents the result of the normal material case, and b
represents the result of different piezoelectric material cases), respectively, and the results are shown
in Fig. 20.

20
 100%
90%
80%

Decrease percentage
70%
60%
50% Drop of max. stress amplitude
Drop of max. flagwise amplitude
40%
Drop of fatigue failure probability
30% Drop of overload failure probability
20%
10%
0%
80 100 120 140 160 180
Elastic modulus of piezoelectric materials（ Gpa）
Fig. 20 Influence analysis of the piezoelectric material
Fig.20 shows that as the elastic modulus of the piezoelectric material increases, the safety of the
blade structure of the floating wind turbine increases. Compared with the raw materials, the overload
and fatigue failure probabilities of the blade structure decrease significantly if the piezoelectric
materials are used. For E = 170 Gpa, the fatigue and overload failure probabilities decrease by 88.13%
and 90%, respectively. With the increase of elastic modulus of the piezoelectric material, stress and
failure probability of the blade structure decrease nonlinearly.

6. Conclusions
The reliability of the blade structure of the floating wind turbine is studied by the numerical
method. The influence of the floating foundation motions and the material properties of the blade on
the stress and displacement of the blade are analyzed. The failure probabilities of the blade root
overload, the blade root fatigue and the excessive displacement of the blade tip are analyzed. The main
conclusions are as follows,
(1) The flapwise motion of the blade tip is much larger than that of edgewise motion. The
amplitudes of root stress and tip displacement of the floating wind turbine are larger than those of
fixed ones. Compared with the fixed wind turbine, the maximum edgewise motion of blade tip of the
floating wind turbine is about 2 times larger than that of the fixed ones.
(2) The failure probabilities of blade root fatigue, blade root overload, and blade tip excessive
displacement of the floating wind turbine are greater than those of fixed ones. Compared with the
fixed wind turbine, fatigue failure probability of blade root of the floating wind turbine increases by
8.4 times (LC2), overload failure probability of blade root increases by 24 times (LC3), and failure
probability of excessive displacement of blade tip increases by 0.82 times (LC2).
(3) For the floating wind turbine blades, the piezoelectric material is arranged on the envelope at
the first quarter of the blade root, and the influence of piezoelectric materials on the blade structure is
studied. The results show that the blade root stress and the blade tip displacement decrease if the
piezoelectric material is activated, and the probabilities of blade root overload and fatigue failure
decrease obviously.
In the calculation of floating wind turbine motions, wind and wave are considered in the same
direction. In the stress and displacement calculations of the blades, only heave and pitch motions of
21
the floating foundation are considered. The effects of directions of wind and wave, and
six-degrees-of-freedom motions of floating foundation on the stress and displacement of the blade
structure should be further considered. The reliability of the piezoelectric ceramics is very important
for the reliability of the blade. In this paper, the reliability of the blade with and without piezoelectric
ceramics are investigated and compared. While the reliability of the piezoelectric ceramics is not
considered. Moreover, piezoelectric material is layered only around the blade root, different
piezoelectric material arrangements should be further considered.

Acknowledgments
This project is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin (No.16JCYBJC21200),
the Fund of the State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
(No.1501), and the Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 51579176.

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