Abstract
Out of the total wind turbine failure events, blade damage accounts for a substantial part, with some studies estimating it at around 23%. Current operation and maintenance (O&M) practices typically make use of corrective type maintenance as the basic approach, implying high costs for repair and replacement activities as well as large revenue losses, mainly in the case of offshore wind farms. The recent development and evolution of condition monitoring techniques, as well as the fact that an increasing number of installed turbines are equipped with online monitoring systems, offers a large amount of information on the blades structural health to the decision maker. Further, inspections of the blades are often performed in connection with service. In light of the obtained information, a preventive type of maintenance becomes feasible, with the potential of predicting the blades remaining life to support O&M decisions for avoiding major failure events. The present paper presents a fracture mechanics based model for estimating the remaining life of a wind turbine blade, focusing on the crack propagation in the blades adhesive joints. A generic crack propagation model is built in Matlab based on a Paris law approach. The model is used within a risk-based maintenance decision framework to optimize maintenance planning for the blades lifetime.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Journal of Marine Science and Engineering |
Volume | 3 |
Issue number | 3 |
Pages (from-to) | 1027-1040 |
Number of pages | 14 |
ISSN | 2077-1312 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2015 |
Event | The International Estuarine and Coastal Modeling Conference - San Diego, United States Duration: 4 Nov 2013 → 6 Nov 2013 Conference number: 13 |
Conference
Conference | The International Estuarine and Coastal Modeling Conference |
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Number | 13 |
Country/Territory | United States |
City | San Diego |
Period | 04/11/2013 → 06/11/2013 |
Bibliographical note
This article belongs to the Special Issue Selected Papers from the 13th Estuarine and Coastal Modeling ConferenceKeywords
- Maintenance
- Blades
- Degradation
- Fracture mechanics
- Offshore