Abstract An operating 2‐MW wind turbine has been scanned and analysed using 2D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and blade element momentum (BEM) analysis. The current work illustrates using full‐scale 3D CFD simulations the differences between 2D and 3D simulations and its impact on the local aerofoil vortex shedding frequency. The outcome shows that despite a pressure redistribution and lift change introduced by the blade span and rotation, the vortex shedding frequency remains similar between 2D and 3D thereby validating the novel fatigue calculation method previously proposed.