MS#06.9 In-Field Monitoring of Wind Turbine Blades

S. WATSON¹, D. ZAPPALA¹, M. STAMM², S. CHAUDHURI², V. PAKRASHI³
¹ TU Delft|² BAM|³ University College Dublin

Reliability, monitoring and sensing, O&M

Although catastrophic failure of wind turbine blades is thankfully quite rare, blade faults and blade damage occur frequently enough to be of concern to operators as they can affect efficient and reliable energy production. Blade monitoring is frequently carried out visually by technicians climbing the turbine or more recently using drones. Visual inspection will pick up surface damage but damage within the blade is harder to determine. Furthermore, at present, inspections are normally carried out whilst the turbine is stopped which has clear economic disadvantages.

Other remote sensing techniques for blade inspection employing such as laser doppler vibrometry, aeroacoustics, infrared thermography or ionizing radiation have been investigated which have the potential to pick up both external and internal faults and be applied whilst the turbine is still running. Nevertheless, such methods still require more research before they can be used reliably in the field.. Drive train vibration measurements offer another source of information in relation to rotor faults resulting from an inertial or aerodynamic imbalance which may be due to a blade fault. All of the techniques have advantages and disadvantages, though theirre use in combination may be a way forward to provide a robust in-field wind turbine blade monitoring system. This mini-symposium will review current research on the application of different techniques for in-field monitoring and how they might be combined to provide better detection of blade faults and remaining useful life.