Integration of low-cost consumer electronics for in-situ condition monitoring of wind turbine blades

Wind turbine blades must be sufficiently durable to withstand fatigue, strong enough to withstand loading but not excessively heavy so as to impose unnecessary loads on the drive train. Thus, different types of materials such as glass reinforced plastic, wood and steel, are used in its construction. The wide-spread of materials used creates great difficulty in predicting the lifetime health of the blades hence the necessity for condition monitoring (CM). CM systems for blades are not yet widely used. Those which are currently deployed are expensive, contributing to rising operating and maintenance costs especially offshore. The current paper describes a vibration-based in-situ CM system, comprised of low-cost consumer electronics (accelerometers, microcontroller and energy harvester), capable of detecting variations in the dynamic properties of turbine blades.