Patent ID: 8631704

Claim:
A fatigue testing device for a wind turbine blade, the blade having a hub end and a tip end and a longitudinal axis, the device comprising: a ground supported bench configured to have the hub end of the blade operably fixed thereto such that the blade is cantilevered therefrom, and a ground supported actuator spaced from said bench and configured to be connected to the blade at a position between the hub end and the tip end of the blade, said bench and said actuator configured to support the blade such that the longitudinal axis of the blade is in a generally horizontal attitude, said actuator configured to reciprocatingly translate the blade at an excitation frequency in a direction generally perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the blade and generally normal to the ground, said actuator configured to be attached to the blade in such a manner that the structural dynamics characteristics of the blade cantilevered from said bench and with said actuator attached thereto are substantially the same as they would be were the blade only cantilevered from said bench.