Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Real-Time Monitoring of Wind Turbine Blade Alignment Using Laser Displacement and Strain Measurement

Ovenden, M.; Wang, Q.; Huang, S.L.; Zhao, W.; Wang, S.

Authors

M. Ovenden

S.L. Huang

W. Zhao



Abstract

Wind turbine (WT) blade structural health monitoring (SHM) is important as it allows damage or misalignment to be detected before it causes catastrophic damage such as that caused by the blade striking the tower. Both of these can be very costly and justify the expense of monitoring. This paper aims to deduce whether a SICK DT-50 laser displacement sensor (LDS) installed inside the tower and a half-bridge type II strain gauge bridge installed at the blade root are capable of detecting ice loading, misalignment, and bolt loosening while the WT is running. Blade faults were detected by the virtual instrument, which conducted a z-test at 99% and 98% significance levels for the LDS and at 99.5% and 99% significance levels for the strain gauge. The significance levels chosen correspond to typical Z-values for statistical tests. A higher significance was used for the strain gauge as it used a one-tail test as opposed to a two-tail test for the LDS. The two different tests were used to test for different sensitivities of the tests. The results show that the strain gauge was capable of detecting all the mass loading cases to 99.5% significance, and the LDS was capable of detecting misalignment, bolt loosening, and 3 out of 4 mass loading cases to 99% significance. It was able to detect the least severe mass loading case of 11 g at the root to only a 98% significance.

Citation

Ovenden, M., Wang, Q., Huang, S., Zhao, W., & Wang, S. (2019). Real-Time Monitoring of Wind Turbine Blade Alignment Using Laser Displacement and Strain Measurement. Journal of Nondestructive Evaluation, Diagnostics and Prognostics of Engineering Systems, 2(3), Article 031001. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4043850

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date May 20, 2019
Online Publication Date Jun 6, 2019
Publication Date Jun 6, 2019
Deposit Date Jun 9, 2019
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Journal of nondestructive evaluation, diagnostics and prognostics of engineering systems
Print ISSN 2572-3901
Publisher American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 2
Issue 3
Article Number 031001
DOI https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4043850