In Situ Blade Deflection Monitoring of a Wind Turbine Using a Wireless Laser Displacement Sensor Device within the Tower

With commercially viable global wind power potential, wind energy penetration is further expected to rise, as will the related problems. One issue is the collision of wind turbine blades with the tower during operation. Structured health monitoring is required to improve operational safety, minimize the risk of sudden failure or total breakdown, ensure reliable power generation, and reduce wind turbine life cycle costs. Large numbers of sensors such as fiber Bragg grating and piezoelectric devices have been attached to the structure, a design that is uneconomical and impractical for use in large wind turbines. This study proposes a single laser displacement sensor (LDS) system in which all of the rotating blades could be cost-effectively evaluated. Contrary to the approach of blade sensor installation, the LDS system is installed in the tower to enable noncontact blade displacement monitoring. The concept of a noncontact sensor and actuator and their energy delivery device installation in the tower will enable various approaches for wind turbine structural health monitoring. Blade bolt loosening causes deflection in the affected blade. Similarly, nacelle tilt or mass loss damage in the blade will result in changes in blade deflection, but the proposed system can identify such problems with ease. With the need of more energy, the sizes of wind blades are getting bigger and bigger. Due to the large size of wind turbine, nowadays wind turbines are installed very high above the ground or water level. It is impractical to monitor the results from LDS through wired connection in these cases. Hence, the wired connection of LDS to base (monitoring) station must be replaced by a wireless solution. This wireless solution is achieved using Zigbee technology. Zigbee operates in the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio bands, typically 2.4 GHz, 915 MHz and 868 MHz. The output from the LDS is fed to the microcontroller which acts as an analog to digital converter. The output from the microcontroller is connected to the Zigbee transceiver module, which transmits the data and at the other end, the zigbee reads the data and displays on the PC from where user can monitor the condition of wind blades.

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Structural Health Monitoring of Composite Material Typical of Wind Turbine Blades by Novelty Detection on Vibration Response

Key Engineering Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/kem.518.319 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 518 ◽

pp. 319-327

Author(s):

Nikolaos Dervilis ◽

R. Barthorpe ◽

Wieslaw Jerzy Staszewski ◽

Keith Worden

Keyword(s):

Composite Material ◽

Structural Health Monitoring ◽

Damage Detection ◽

Wind Turbine ◽

Wind Turbines ◽

Health Monitoring ◽

Novelty Detection ◽

Turbine Blades ◽

Wind Turbine Blades ◽

Structural Health

New generations of offshore wind turbines are playing a leading role in the energy arena. One of the target challenges is to achieve reliable Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) of the blades. Fault detection at the early stage is a vital issue for the structural and economical success of the large wind turbines. In this study, experimental measurements of Frequency Response Functions (FRFs) are used and identification of mode shapes and natural frequencies is accomplished via an LMS system. Novelty detection is introduced as a robust statistical method for low-level damage detection which has not yet been widely used in SHM of composite blades. Fault diagnosis of wind turbine blades is a challenge due to their composite material, dimensions, aerodynamic nature and environmental conditions. The novelty approach combined with vibration measurements introduces an online condition monitoring method. This paper presents the outcomes of a scheme for damage detection of carbon fibre material in which novelty detection approaches are applied to FRF measurements. The approach is demonstrated for a stiffened composite plate subject to incremental levels of impact damage.

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Novel Application and Validation of a Method to Assess Visual Impacts of Rotating Wind Turbine Blades Within Woodland Areas

PFG – Journal of Photogrammetry Remote Sensing and Geoinformation Science ◽

10.1007/s41064-021-00141-4 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 89 (1) ◽

pp. 1-14

Author(s):

U. Nopp-Mayr ◽

F. Kunz ◽

F. Suppan ◽

E. Schöll ◽

J. Coppes

Keyword(s):

Environmental Impact ◽

Wind Turbine ◽

Wind Turbines ◽

Power Plants ◽

Laser Scanning ◽

Forest Canopy ◽

Turbine Blades ◽

Wind Turbine Blades ◽

Environmental Impact Assessments ◽

Independent Field

AbstractIncreasing numbers of wind power plants (WPP) are constructed across the globe to reduce the anthropogenic contribution to global warming. There are, however, concerns on the effects of WPP on human health as well as related effects on wildlife. To address potential effects of WPP in environmental impact assessments, existing models accounting for shadow flickering and noise are widely applied. However, a standardized, yet simple and widely applicable proxy for the visibility of rotating wind turbines in woodland areas was largely lacking up to date. We combined land cover information of forest canopy extracted from orthophotos and airborne laser scanning (LiDAR) data to represent the visibility of rotating wind turbines in five woodland study sites with a high spatial resolution. Performing an in-situ validation in five study areas across Europe which resulted in a unique sample of 1738 independent field observations, we show that our approach adequately predicts from where rotating wind turbine blades are visible within woodlands or not. We thus provide strong evidence, that our approach yields a valuable proxy of the visibility of moving rotor blades with high resolution which in turn can be applied in environmental impact assessments of WPP within woodlands worldwide.

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Structural Health Monitoring of Research-Scale Wind Turbine Blades

Key Engineering Materials ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/kem.558.364 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 558 ◽

pp. 364-373 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Stuart G. Taylor ◽

Kevin M. Farinholt ◽

Gyu Hae Park ◽

Charles R. Farrar ◽

Michael D. Todd ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Structural Health Monitoring ◽

Embedded Systems ◽

Wind Turbine ◽

Health Monitoring ◽

Turbine Blades ◽

Field Tests ◽

Ultrasonic Waves ◽

Wind Turbine Blades ◽

Structural Health ◽

Sensing System

This paper presents ongoing work by the authors to implement real-time structural health monitoring (SHM) systems for operational research-scale wind turbine blades. The authors have been investigating and assessing the performance of several techniques for SHM of wind turbine blades using piezoelectric active sensors. Following a series of laboratory vibration and fatigue tests, these techniques are being implemented using embedded systems developed by the authors. These embedded systems are being deployed on operating wind turbine platforms, including a 20-meter rotor diameter turbine, located in Bushland, TX, and a 4.5-meter rotor diameter turbine, located in Los Alamos, NM. The SHM approach includes measurements over multiple frequency ranges, in which diffuse ultrasonic waves are excited and recorded using an active sensing system, and the blades global ambient vibration response is recorded using a passive sensing system. These dual measurement types provide a means of correlating the effect of potential damage to changes in the global structural behavior of the blade. In order to provide a backdrop for the sensors and systems currently installed in the field, recent damage detection results for laboratory-based wind turbine blade experiments are reviewed. Our recent and ongoing experimental platforms for field tests are described, and experimental results from these field tests are presented. LA-UR-12-24691.

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Sustainable End-of-Life Management of Wind Turbine Blades: Overview of Current and Coming Solutions

Materials ◽

10.3390/ma14051124 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (5) ◽

pp. 1124

Author(s):

Leon Mishnaevsky Mishnaevsky

Keyword(s):

Wind Turbine ◽

End Of Life ◽

Wind Turbines ◽

Natural Fiber ◽

Turbine Blades ◽

Wind Turbine Blades ◽

Maintenance And Repair ◽

Life Management ◽

Large Wind

Various scenarios of end-of-life management of wind turbine blades are reviewed. “Reactive” strategies, designed to deal with already available, ageing turbines, installed in the 2000s, are discussed, among them, maintenance and repair, reuse, refurbishment and recycling. The main results and challenges of “pro-active strategies”, designed to ensure recyclability of new generations of wind turbines, are discussed. Among the main directions, the wind turbine blades with thermoplastic and recyclable thermoset composite matrices, as well as wood, bamboo and natural fiber-based composites were reviewed. It is argued that repair and reuse of wind turbine blades, and extension of the blade life has currently a number of advantages over other approaches. While new recyclable materials have been tested in laboratories, or in some cases on small or medium blades, there are remaining technological challenges for their utilization in large wind turbine blades.

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Design and Analysis of a Wind Turbine Blade with Dimples to Enhance the Efficiency through CFD with ANSYS R16.0

MATEC Web of Conferences ◽

10.1051/matecconf/201820702004 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 207 ◽

pp. 02004

Author(s):

M. Rajaram Narayanan ◽

S. Nallusamy ◽

M. Ragesh Sathiyan

Keyword(s):

Fluid Dynamics ◽

Computational Fluid Dynamics ◽

Wind Turbine ◽

Wind Turbines ◽

Turbine Blades ◽

Electrical Energy ◽

Optimum Combination ◽

Surface Topology ◽

Wind Turbine Blades ◽

Lift And Drag

In the global scenario, wind turbines and their aerodynamics are always subjected to constant research for increasing their efficiency which converts the abundant wind energy into usable electrical energy. In this research, an attempt is made to increase the efficiency through the changes in surface topology of wind turbines through computational fluid dynamics. Dimples on the other hand are very efficient in reducing air drag as is it evident from the reduction of drag and increase in lift in golf balls. The predominant factors influencing the efficiency of the wind turbines are lift and drag which are to be maximized and minimized respectively. In this research, surface of turbine blades are integrated with dimples of various sizes and arrangements and are analyzed using computational fluid dynamics to obtain an optimum combination. The analysis result shows that there is an increase in power with about 15% increase in efficiency. Hence, integration of dimples on the surface of wind turbine blades has helped in increasing the overall efficiency of the wind turbine.

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Radar-based structural health monitoring of wind turbine blades: The case of damage detection

Structural Health Monitoring ◽

10.1177/1475921717721447 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 17 (4) ◽

pp. 815-822 ◽

Cited By ~ 26

Author(s):

Jochen Moll ◽

Philip Arnold ◽

Moritz Mälzer ◽

Viktor Krozer ◽

Dimitry Pozdniakov ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Structural Health Monitoring ◽

Damage Detection ◽

Wind Turbine ◽

Health Monitoring ◽

Turbine Blades ◽

Heterogeneous Material ◽

Material System ◽

Wind Turbine Blades ◽

Millimetre Wave ◽

Structural Health

Structural health monitoring of wind turbine blades is challenging due to its large dimensions, as well as the complex and heterogeneous material system. In this article, we will introduce a radically new structural health monitoring approach that uses permanently installed radar sensors in the microwave and millimetre-wave frequency range for remote and in-service inspection of wind turbine blades. The radar sensor is placed at the tower of the wind turbine and irradiates the electromagnetic waves in the direction of the rotating blades. Experimental results for damage detection of complex structures will be presented in a laboratory environment for the case of a 10-mm-thick glass-fibre-reinforced plastic plate, as well as a real blade-tip sample.

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Research on Wind Turbine Blade Loads and Dynamics Factors

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.1014.124 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 1014 ◽

pp. 124-127

Author(s):

Zhi Qiang Xu ◽

Jian Huang

Keyword(s):

Wind Turbine ◽

Turbine Blade ◽

Wind Turbines ◽

Mechanical Energy ◽

Turbine Blades ◽

Electrical Energy ◽

Wind Turbine Blade ◽

Strength Analysis ◽

Wind Turbine Blades ◽

Turbine Wheel

Wind turbines consists of three key parts, namely, wind wheels (including blades, hub, etc.), cabin (including gearboxes, motors, controls, etc.) and the tower and Foundation. Wind turbine wheel is the most important part ,which is made up of blades and hubs. Blade has a good aerodynamic shape, which will produce aerodynamic in the airflow rotation, converting wind energy into mechanical energy, and then, driving the generator into electrical energy by gearbox pace. Wind turbine operates in the natural environment, their load wind turbine blades are more complex. Therefore load calculations and strength analysis for wind turbine design is very important. Wind turbine blades are core components of wind turbines, so understanding of their loads and dynamics by which the load on the wind turbine blade design is of great significance.

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FSI in Wind Turbines: A Review

International Journal of Recent Contributions from Engineering Science & IT (iJES) ◽

10.3991/ijes.v8i3.16595 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (3) ◽

pp. 37

Author(s):

Yogesh Ramesh Patel

Keyword(s):

Wind Turbine ◽

Wind Turbines ◽

Stokes Equations ◽

Turbine Blades ◽

Fluid Structure Interaction ◽

Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian ◽

Wind Turbine Blades ◽

Fluid Structure ◽

Structure Interaction ◽

Deformable Structure

This paper provides a brief overview of the research in the field of Fluid-structure interaction in Wind Turbines. Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) is the interplay of some movable or deformable structure with an internal or surrounding fluid flow. Flow brought about vibrations of two airfoils used in wind turbine blades are investigated by using a strong coupled fluid shape interplay approach. The approach is based totally on a regularly occurring Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code that solves the Navier-Stokes equations defined in Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE) coordinates by way of a finite extent method. The need for the FSI in the wind Turbine system is studied and comprehensively presented.

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Wind Turbine Blade Damage Detection Using Various Machine Learning Algorithms

Volume 8: 28th Conference on Mechanical Vibration and Noise ◽

10.1115/detc2016-59686 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Taylor Regan ◽

Rukiye Canturk ◽

Elizabeth Slavkovsky ◽

Christopher Niezrecki ◽

Murat Inalpolat

Keyword(s):

Machine Learning ◽

Damage Detection ◽

Wind Turbine ◽

Health Monitoring ◽

Turbine Blades ◽

Machine Learning Algorithms ◽

Support Vector ◽

Test Rig ◽

Wind Turbine Blades ◽

Baseline Characteristics

Wind turbine blades undergo high operational loads, experience variable environmental conditions, and are susceptible to failures due to defects, fatigue, and weather induced damage. These large-scale composite structures are essentially enclosed acoustic cavities and currently have limited, if any, structural health monitoring in practice. A novel acoustics-based structural sensing and health monitoring technique is developed, requiring efficient algorithms for operational damage detection of cavity structures. This paper describes a systematic approach used in the identification of a competent machine learning algorithm as well as a set of statistical features for acoustics-based damage detection of enclosed cavities, such as wind turbine blades. Logistic regression (LR) and support vector machine (SVM) methods are identified and used with optimal feature selection for decision making using binary classification. A laboratory-scale wind turbine with hollow composite blades was built for damage detection studies. This test rig allows for testing of stationary or rotating blades (each fit with an internally located speaker and microphone), of which time and frequency domain information can be collected to establish baseline characteristics. The test rig can then be used to observe any deviations from the baseline characteristics. An external microphone attached to the tower will also be utilized to monitor blade damage while blades are internally ensonified by wireless speakers. An initial test campaign with healthy and damaged blade specimens is carried out to arrive at certain conclusions on the detectability and feature extraction capabilities required for damage detection.

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