Ermüdungsverhalten von Hochleistungsbetonen in Windenergieanlagen

Fatigue behaviour of high performance concretes for wind turbines

New developments in the wind energy sector will lead to wind turbines with enormous capacities. As a result, the loads of the supporting structures are also increasing. For some time now, high performance concretes with self-compacting properties have been used in wind turbines for structural connections. Furthermore, slender foundations and prestressed concrete supporting structures made out of high-strength concrete are under development. In future, fatigue design of these high performance concretes is to be done according to the new fib-Model Code 2010. This code includes a new fatigue design model which enables a safe and economic fatigue design, even for high strength concrete. Extensive research with regard to the fatigue behaviour of different types of high performance concrete has been carried out at the Institute of Building Materials Science, Leibniz Universität Hannover. As part of these research activities, the influences of steel fibre reinforcement on the fatigue behaviour of high performance concretes are being investigated. In this paper, interim results of these investigations are presented and the potential for the practical applications of high performance concrete is discussed. The results of the conducted investigations are presented in comparison with the new fatigue design model of the fib-Model Code 2010.