2 ms·
It's a 30 storey fiberglass building spinning at speed. The stress is high and the material fatigues over time. Eventually it will crack, a stress concentratio
by LegitShady 7y ago
It's a 30 storey fiberglass building spinning at speed. The stress is high and the material fatigues over time. Eventually it will crack, a stress concentration will occur and the crack will propagate somewhere important and it will fail completely.
Now take that same material and give it a much shorter span/length, and a much lower loading, and fatigue becomes less of an issue.
I'm not sure what bridge they're talking about in specific but I don't see why they couldn't be beams for a pedestrian bridge providing. I bet the manufacturer has a lot of testing data too.
- WalterBright 7y agoCumulative fatigue damage goes up as the cube of the stress, if I recall correctly.
- phkahler 7y agoWouldn't that imply that a modest over-design could significantly improve blade life?
- WalterBright 7y agoyes
- LegitShady 7y agoThey are designed to be constructable, affordable, reliable, and somewhat maintainable (as maintainable as a giant windmill full of electricity generating equipment can be I guess). If it was easy and cheap to make them last longer someone would do so and win the market.