FATIGUE LOADS IN WIND TURBINES AND USE OF OPERATIONAL METADATA

The present disclosure relates to methods and systems for determining fatigue loads in a wind turbine. Such a method may comprise obtaining operational metadata representative for an operational situation, and determining whether the operational metadata corresponds to operational metadata from one of a plurality of previously defined operational situations for which fatigue loads are known, the plurality of previously defined operational situations being stored in an operational situations database. If the operational metadata representative for the operational situation substantially corresponds to operational metadata from the stored previous operational situation, then the fatigue loads for the stored previously define operational situation are summed to historically accumulated fatigue loads to determine total accumulated fatigue loads. Methods for registering an operational situation in a wind turbine are also provided.