SBIR Phase I: IDT Sensors for Monitoring Wind Energy Infrastructure

这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目将开发传感器技术，以解决用于清洁发电的风力涡轮机叶片中使用的复合材料的检查和健康监测问题。该技术将用于制造和运输后的现场检查（80%的叶片损坏发生在此过程中），以及运行期间的健康监测，以避免灾难性的叶片故障。第一阶段的工作将包括设计和制造（通过激光微加工技术）交叉数字化（IDT）声波传感器。这些设备通过材料辐射声波，通过听回声来主动检测裂缝、脱键和纤维断裂。IDT传感器以前曾用于均匀金属的裂纹检测。该项目将重点关注如何将这些传感器适应并集成到风力涡轮机叶片的复合结构中。这包括表征针对各种已知缺陷检测到的声学响应，优化传感器以识别这些缺陷，并展示实施传感器以监测在役涡轮叶片健康状况的可行性。研究的结果将是一个传感器的演示，该传感器可以作为一个实际系统的基础，用于组件制造检查和机载健康监测。该项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力将是提高风力发电的整体可负担性，并对环境和国家能源独立和安全带来好处。该项目将解决一个具有技术挑战性的问题，即将一种简单耐用的均匀材料裂纹检测传感器应用于更复杂、但在许多情况下更相关的复合材料。该项目的重点是检测风力涡轮机叶片的缺陷，这些缺陷仅占涡轮机安装成本的5%，但如果有缺陷，则会使整个系统处于危险之中。一个1.5兆瓦的涡轮机造价约200 - 300万美元，每个风力发电场可能包括几十个涡轮机。2008年，受益于传感器保护的风能基础设施资产的国家投资超过了120亿美元。因此，安装前检测损坏和持续健康监测的简单、准确的方法可以产生重大的经济影响。一个成功的复合材料声波传感器技术也将有更广泛的基础设施监测应用，如复合桥梁、塔和管道。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will develop sensor technology to address the problem of inspection and health monitoring of composites used in wind turbine blades used for clean electrical power generation. Such technology will be useful for field inspection following manufacture and transportation (where 80% of blade damage occurs), and health monitoring during operation to avoid catastrophic blade failure. The Phase I effort will include design and fabrication (by laser micromachining techniques) of interdigitated (IDT) acoustic wave sensors. These devices radiate sound waves through a material to actively detect cracks, de-bonding and fiber breakage by listening for echoes. IDT sensors have previously been used for crack detection in homogeneous metals. This program will focus on the challenge of adapting and integrating these sensors into the composite architecture of wind turbine blades. This includes characterizing the acoustic response detected for various types of known defects, optimizing the sensors to recognize these defect, and showing the feasibility of implementing the sensors to monitor the health of in-service turbine blades. The result of the research will be demonstration of a sensor that can serve as the basis for a practical system for component manufacturing inspection and onboard health monitoring.The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will be to improve the overall affordability of wind power generation of electricity, with the attendant benefits to the environment and national energy independence and security. The project will address the technologically challenging problem of adapting a crack detecting sensor that is simple and robust in homogeneous materials to more complicated, but in many situations more relevant, composite materials. The project focus detection of defects in wind turbine blades which represent just 5% of installed turbine cost, but, if defective, put the entire system at risk. A 1.5 MW turbine costs ~$2-3M to build, and each wind farm may include dozens of turbines. The national investment in wind infrastructure assets that would benefit from sensor protection was in excess of $12 billion in 2008. Thus, a simple, accurate method for pre-installation detection of damage and on-going health monitoring can have a major economic impact. A successful acoustic wave sensor technology for composites would also have wider infrastructure monitoring applications, as for composite bridges, towers and pipelines.