MS#06.5 Structural Monitoring as a Tool for Managing Wind Farms Operation

F. MAGALHãES¹, E. CHATZI², C. DEVRIENDT³
¹ Faculty of Engineering, University of Porto|² ETHZ|³ OWI-Lab, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Reliability, monitoring and sensing, O&M

This mini-symposium deals with the monitoring of wind turbine structural components (foundation, tower and blades) with the goal of detecting structural faults/damage, identifying operating deficiencies with impact on the structural performance, and evaluating the effects of slow evolving deterioration processes (e.g. fatigue, erosion). These tools should undergo a validation process on simulated and/or experimental data, with preference for full-scale testing and monitoring. They should also be designed to provide the wind farm operator with information that supports the asset management, balancing energy production with turbine wear, forecasting the remaining useful life, and accordingly planning maintenance operations.

Structural monitoring applications that can be featured in this MS may include the measurement of environmental and operating conditions, structural load, structural response quantities in the form of strains, deformations, or general vibrational response indexes and dynamic properties, such as natural frequencies and damping ratios. The exploitation of raw information and their fusion in a way that supports diagnostic and prognostic tasks and associated decisions is of particular importance. Applications of probabilistic machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms, such as neural networks, Bayesian networks and decision tree classifiers are encouraged, especially if applied at the wind farm level. Development of optimized sensing strategies for quick and economic deployments, to deal with wind turbine challenges are also welcomed.