DLC:X.X | Reducing the Design Fatigue Factor of offshore wind turbines

The DLC:X.X project

Reducing the Design Fatigue Factor through exploiting Structural Health Monitoring data and extending the Design Load Case table

Project description

Offshore wind turbines are designed using predefined Design Load Cases (DLCs) that represent a range of environmental and operational conditions. As offshore wind turbines increasingly interact with constrained electricity grids and participate in more flexible operating strategies, some relevant operating conditions may not be fully represented by current DLC tables.

DLC:X.X investigates how Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), improved understanding of operational loads, and extended DLCs can be used to reduce unnecessary conservatism in offshore wind turbine design while maintaining structural reliability and safety. This goal can be achieved by integrating SHM for the observability of the loads and the assumption of the controllability of these loads.

The DLC:X.X project is structured into four work packages covering probabilistic design and structural health monitoring, the development of an extended DLC table, and validation through a case study in the Prinses Elisabeth Zone (PEZ) off the Belgian coast. In addition to the work package for the general project coordination and interaction among the three academic partners—Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Ghent University and Aalborg University—and the Industry Advisory Board (IAB), the three remaining work packages include:

  1. Probabilistic management of offshore wind turbines with SHM in mind

    • Aims to develop a probabilistic design and fatigue life management framework that explicitly incorporates SHM data and active load control
    • Focuses on the fatigue life of primary steel components of the offshore wind turbine
    • Leverages advancements in SHM and modern load control
    • Aims to reduce the conservatism in deterministic design methods

  2. Definition of the extended DLC table

    • Currently, offshore wind turbines are designed using DLCs to simulate the behaviour of the turbine under different conditions
    • However, these current DLC tables do not reflect the electricity grid and market conditions that are observed today
    • This work package aims to extend the DLC table based on industry experience, future electricity grid and market conditions and requirements, as well as the controllability of loads.

  3. Case Study on Prinses Elizabeth Zone

    • This work package aims to combine the results of the previous two work packages to return a quantified estimate of the impact of DLC:X.X and validate the approaches used.
    • A real-life case study on PEZ should provide an up-to-date quantified assessment on the potential reduced levelized cost of electricity (LCOE).

Consortium

Partners

Industrial Advisory Board

Main role of Ghent University

Ghent University's Energy Systems Laboratory (EnSy) leads WP2 and contributes to WP3. The main focus is on understanding how future electricity-system conditions may affect offshore wind turbine operation and how these conditions can be incorporated into the design process.

As a part of work package 2, EnSy of Ghent University will compile a list of load cases that are experienced in the field by wind farm operators but fall outside the current design load case tables, or shortly “atypical load cases”. These compiled atypical load cases will be primarily related to grid congestion curtailments, ancillary service provisions or energy market conditions. To gain further information on the compiled atypical load cases, a workshop with the IAB partners will be organized. On top of this, EnSy will also carry out a desktop study on the expected grid and market conditions and requirements for the upcoming 20 years with focus on Belgium and EU. Associated with the found grid and market requirements, a revenue model will be developed, also considering CAPEX and OPEX expenditures, to determine the profitability of different wind turbine operation strategies. Further, a statistical analysis on the likelihood of these different flexible strategies will be executed. Based on the result of the studies and the feedback from IAB partners, an initial proposal of an extended design brief and a final design methodology for an extended DLC table will be drawn by EnSy.

As for work package 3, the resulting methodology from work package 2 will be used to obtain a summary of the grid/market conditions and create an extended DLC table for PEZ.

Duration and budget

The project duration is 2 years, starting from 1 January 2026. The DLC:X.X project receives funding from the Flemish Government through VLAIO and is supported by the Blue Cluster. The project budget is approximately 1 million Euro.

Project team at Ghent University

Predoctoral researcher:Mete Erdem Akın
Postdoctoral researchers:Sajid Qazi, Nezmin Kayedpour and Dimitar Bozalakov
Business developer:Karen Hemelsoet
Supervisors:Lieven Vandevelde and Gruillaume Crevecoeur

More information