Acoustic Sensing Based Operational Monitoring of Wind Turbine Blades

Abstract

This paper presents a general overview of the different aspects of a novel structural health monitoring technique developed for wind turbine blades. The proposed technique is based upon detecting the changes in acoustic transmission loss due to structural deformation and damage incurred. This acoustics-based damage detection technique consists of two complementary approaches, namely, the active and passive acoustic damage detection approaches. The proposed approaches can be applied to both onshore and offshore turbines and requires minimum number of acoustic sensors positioned internal and external to the blade structure. Both approaches will be detailed from the structural health monitoring, acoustics, aeroacoustics as well as the practical implementation perspective. The potential benefits of using the proposed approaches and the corresponding technology on wind turbine blades is also discussed.