Full-Field Strain Monitoring of a Wind Turbine Using Very Limited Set of Displacements Measured With Three-Dimensional Point Tracking

Abstract

In the current work, the optical three-dimensional point-tracking (3DPT) measurement approach is used in conjunction with a recently developed modal expansion technique. These two approaches (empirical and analytical) complement each other and enable the prediction of the full-field dynamic response on the surface of the structure as well as within the interior points. The practical merit of the approach was verified using a non-spinning and spinning wind turbine rotor. The three-bladed wind turbine rotator was subjected to different loading scenarios and the displacement of optical targets located on the blades was measured using 3DPT. The measured displacement was expanded and applied to the finite element model of the turbine to extract full-field strain on the turbine. The sensitivity of the proposed approach to the number of optical targets was studied in this paper. It is shown the approach can accurately predict the strain even with very few set of measurement points.