Representation of fatigue for wind turbine control

Fatigue is a critical factor in structures such as wind turbines exposed to harsh operating conditions, both in the design stage and in the control during their operation. In the present paper, the most recognized approaches to estimate the damage caused by fatigue in the component level are discussed and compared. The aim of this paper is to address the applicability of those fatigue damage estimation methods to control of wind turbines. Accordingly, for our discussion and comparison, we categorize fatigue estimation methods in a macroscopic scale as counting, spectral, stochastic and hysteresis operator methods. Copyright (c) 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.