UC San Diego

In this paper, we combine recent developments in modeling of fatigue-damage, isogeometric analysis (IGA) of thin-shell structures, and structural health monitoring (SHM) to develop a computational steering framework for fatigue-damage prediction in full-scale laminated composite structures. The main constituents of the proposed framework are described in detail, and the framework is deployed in the context of an actual fatigue test of a full-scale wind-turbine blade structure. The results indicate that using an advanced computational model informed by in situ SHM data leads to accurate prediction of the damage zone formation, damage progression, and eventual failure of the structure. Although the blade fatigue simulation was driven by test data obtained prior to the computation, the proposed computational steering framework may be deployed concurrently with structures undergoing fatigue loading.