GL Renewables Certification (GL RC) has certified nCode DesignLife offered by HBM. The structural integrity software for the fatigue calculation of cast and forged structural machinery components in wind turbines has been evaluated on the basis of GL RC’s Guideline for the Certification of Wind Turbines 2010.
“The certificate proves that the software is suitable for the calculation of fatigue life of forged and cast structural machinery components of wind turbines, ” says Mike Woebbeking , Vice President and Head of Certification Body , GL Renewables Certification . It assures users that their component designs can be analysed in conformity with GL RC’s Guideline for the Certification of Wind Turbines 2010.
This includes fatigue analysis under complex real world loading conditions specified in GL RC’s guidelines or IEC 61400-1 international standard. The evaluation is based on parallel calculations of intermediate and final results considering different stress hypotheses and influence factors for survival probability, cast quality, surface finish and mean stress correction.
The software, nCode DesignLife, for CAE fatigue analysis is optimized for today’s large model sizes and realistic loading schedules. Its advanced fatigue solver enables wind turbine manufacturers to identify when and where failure could occur in the design by using complete loading duty cycles representing the full 20 year loading events experienced in service.
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Offshore WIND staff, April 18, 2012; Image: gl-group