Leuven, Belgium - LMS, the engineering innovation company, announced today that TÜV SÜD Industrie Service GmbH is implementing LMS Virtual.Lab simulation technology in support of its type certification services for wind turbines. Simulation-based processes to efficiently certify wind turbine designs are being established by the firm in response to growing demands for wind-powered electrical generation, which is reported to have quadrupled from 2000 to 2006 and is predicted to more than double by 2010 according to the World Wind Energy Association. To become operational, wind turbines must be certified for structural integrity and safety in withstanding routine cyclic loads as well as extreme weather conditions and random high-impact forces hitting the structures.

The global need for wind turbine certification is increasing significantly, especially in Germany which has an installed wind power output of 20,900 megawatts and ranks number one in the world for electrical generation from wind turbines. In this respect, Germany-based TÜV SÜD is well positioned to meet this demand domestically and internationally. The firm is one of Germany's most widely recognized service organizations, with the company's blue octagonal emblem synonymous with certification for safety and reliability in a wide range of industries including transportation, energy, chemical processing, consumer products, medical equipment, and recreational products.

The firm is accredited according to international standards for wind energy certification and is authorized by German state regulators as an official approval body for wind turbines. In that capacity, engineers engage in a wide range of aspects of the certification process including testing, inspection, design review, approval, and calculations such as stress analysis, structural dynamics and life cycle assessment.

In support of its wind turbine certification work, TÜV SÜD is implementing the LMS Virtual.Lab Durability software to identify fatigue hotspots and assess their effect on component reliability. The wind turbines have to withstand many years of ever changing wind conditions. All these have to be simulated to achieve a reliable fatigue result. The process begins by the finite element model of the component to be certified. For fatigue life prediction all the wind load conditions need to be simulated and the damaging effect accumulated. The LMS durability software makes use of templates and scripting features using Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) to handle this complex set-up efficiently.

''Capturing best practices and automating repetitive tasks in the fatigue life prediction process saves significant time, reduces the chance for errors and ensures that we consistently follow standard procedures in our certification of wind turbines,'' explains Dipl. Ing Albert Limmer from TÜV SÜD. He notes that the scripting feature is particularly beneficial in integrating LMS Virtual.Lab with in-house and specialty applications used by TÜV SÜD. After computation of fatigue life, results are automatically post-processed with color-coded plots clearly showing areas of excessive fatigue concentration and predicted time-to-failure for the component. Written reports with all relevant data included are then automatically created through LMS report generation capabilities.

''Using powerful automation and visualization features, our engineers have found LMS Virtual.Lab to be exceptionally easy to use and a state-of-the-art technology on which to base our wind-turbine certification process. Performing 'virtual certification' through analysis and simulation enables TÜV SÜD to evaluate more wind turbines faster and in far greater detail than is otherwise possible - or practical - through physical testing. In this way, we rely on LMS Virtual.Lab in meeting growing worldwide energy demands for an increased number of wind turbines that must operate safely and reliably for decades under extreme conditions.''

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