A summary of defect evolution and health monitoring of wind turbine blades

Abstract

The wind turbine blade is one of most critical systems in terms of failure as the wind turbines are rapidly becoming larger and more complicated. Developing better design procedures are ongoing and the enhancements over the time are promising and requires reliable supportive monitoring and maintenance systems to ensure the satisfactory level of asset cost effectiveness. The purpose of the paper is to review the contributions concerning the wind turbine blade defects, in order to: understand how the defects in wind turbine blades evolve, i.e., initiate and propagate over the lifetime and to understand how the defects in wind turbine blades can be monitored. The paper reviews the mechanical dynamic models, testing and condition monitoring techniques. The paper proceeds to provide a generic defect evolution scenario with aim to enhance the fragmented understanding of the micro and macro-structure behaviour of the wind turbine blades.