The main contributing factors to unsteady loading of Offshore Wind Turbines (OWT) are wind shear, turbulence, and waves. In the present paper, the turbulence intensity and the wind shear exponent are investigated. Using data from the FINO 1 research platform, these parameters are analyzed and compared with the proposed wind field parameters in the IEC standard 61400-3. Based on this analysis, aeroelastic simulations are performed to determine the effect of wind field parameters on the fatigue and the extreme loads on the rotor blades. For the investigations, the aeroelastic model of a 5 MW OWT is used with a focus on design load cases in an operating state (power production). The fatigue loads are examined by means of the damage-equivalent load-range approach. In order to determine the extreme loads with a recurrence period of 50 years, a peak over threshold extrapolation method and a novel method based on average conditional exceedance rates are used. The results show that the requirements of the IEC standard are very conservative for the design of the rotor blades. Therefore, there could be a large optimization potential for the reduction of weight and cost of the rotor blades.
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