Progress and trends in nondestructive testing and evaluation for wind turbine composite blade

Abstract

Wind energy is one of the fastest growing renewable energy resources. It is distinctly important to increase reliability and availability of wind turbines and further to reduce the wind energy cost. Blades are considered to be one of the most critical components in wind turbine system because they convert Kinetic energy of wind into useable power. Blades are fabricated by carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) or glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP). Flaws and damages are inevitable during either fabrication or lifetime of a composite blade. Thus, non-destructive testing (NDT) and structural health monitoring (SHM) for wind turbine blade (WTB) are required to prevent failures and increase reliability in both manufacturing quality control and in-service inspection. In this work, a fully, in-depth and comprehensive review of NDT techniques for WTB inspection was reported based on an orderly and concise literature survey. Firstly, typical flaw and damage occurring in manufacturing progress and in service of WTB were introduced. Next, the developments of visual, sonic and ultrasonic, optical, electromagnetic, thermal and radiographic NDT for composite WTB inspection were reviewed. Thereafter, strengths and limitations of NDT techniques were concluded through comparison studies. In the end, some research trends in WTB NDT have been predicted, for example in combination with SHM. This work will provide a guide for NDT and SHM of WTB, which plays an important role in wind turbine safety control and wind energy cost savings. In addition, this work can benefit the NDT development in the field of renewable energy, such as solar energy, and energy conservation field, such as building diagnosis.