The wake effect of wind farm is the main factor affecting the performance of wind turbines in the downstream wind farm. The wake effect

load characteristics and fatigue damage of wind turbines in front

middle and rear of an offshore wind farm were quantitatively assessed by FAST.Farm

which is the latest opensource multiphysical field coupling simulation software tool of National Renewable Energy Laboratory(NREL). The results show that

the wind speed decreases and the turbulence intensity increases in turn in the wind farm along the flow direction. The fatigue damage of front-row

middle-row and back-row wind turbines increases with the inflow wind speed. Especially

under the condition of high inflow wind speed

the fatigue damage of the middle-row wind turbines at the blade root and the tower base increases exponentially

and the increase range is obviously higher than that of the front and back row wind turbine. It suggests that the structural strength of wind turbines in the central area should be improved to some extent in wind power pre-development and post-operation and maintenance work.