ABSTRACT
Reinforced Concrete Slab Foundation (RCSF) is the most common onshore wind turbine foundation type installed by the wind industry around the world. Fatigue cracks in a RCSF are an important issue to be considered by the designers. Causes and consequences of the cracks due to fatigue damage in RCSFs are discussed in this paper. A probabilistic fatigue model for a RCSF is established which makes a rational treatment of the uncertainties involved in the complex interaction between fatigue cyclic loads and reinforced concrete. Design and limit state equations are established considering concrete shear capacity in combination with fatigue damage based on design principles in the Eurocodes. The stochastic model is developed to cover the ‘concrete shear-fatigue capacity’ illustrated by an example considering the reliability assessment on a RCSF.
