Embedded Sensors for Composite Wind Turbine Blades

2010 
Wind turbines have received much emphasis in recent years as an economically-viable alternative and renewable power generation source. Installed capacity is growing by over 20%/year. Continued development of wind turbine applications will need to provide confidence via a cogent reliability infrastructure. In this work, we explore the embedment of low cost sensors for composite wind turbine blades to determine Loads, Health Monitoring, and Inspection and Repair. Since these laminates are very large and thick, standard techniques for inspections through the surface are impractical or impossible. Hence, embedded sensors are needed at the source of reliability concerns. The emphasis of this work is in manufacturing protocols, and the influence of the sensors on mechanical properties. A variety of sensors and surface treatments were explored. Major conclusions from this work are that low cost sensors are feasible. However, embedding off the shelf sensors into wind turbine blade laminates will not be trivial; composite/sensor interface and static strength problems were found in the present work. Specific recommendations for surface treatment of sensors are provided along with a hierarchical procedure for surface treatment studies before deploying a given sensor in production and health monitoring.
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