Demonstrator for robotic inspection and maintenance of offshore wind turbine blades

海上风力涡轮机叶片机器人检查和维护演示机

• 批准号: 104833
• 金额: $ 95.29万
• 依托单位: BLADEBUG LIMITED
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Collaborative R&D
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2019 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=104833
• 关键词: Demonstrator; robotic; inspection; maintenance; offshore

"Offshore wind turbines operate in harsh and extreme environments such as the North Sea. As blades continue getting larger, their tip speeds can exceed 100m/s. At these speeds, any particulates in the air such as rain, dust, salt, insects, etc. can wear away the surface of a blade's leading edge, a phenomenon known as ""leading edge erosion"" (LEE). This, in turn, alters the blade's aerodynamic shape, affecting its efficiency and potentially exposing the blade to further and more serious damage, thereby reducing its working life.Whilst the extent and nature of contributing factors to LEE are not yet fully understood, it can be said that at some point in their lifespan, all wind turbine blades will suffer from some form or degree of LEE which will need to be addressed. Maintaining blades in the offshore wind sector is an expensive and dangerous job where, typically, highly skilled rope access technicians are required to scale down the blades to carry out leading edge repairs.Having successfully proven the concept in Phase 1 of the Innovate UK funding round, in this project, BladeBug Limited will continue its work with the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult to develop, build and test a complete, walking robotic system designed specifically to carry out a number of these detailed inspections and repetitive repairs on the leading edges of wind turbine blades.The ability to perform these tasks remotely will free up time of skilled rope access technicians to undertake specialist repairs or upgrades to blades that only they can do. More blades could then be inspected and treated in the same time frames, maximising the electrical output of the turbines and, as a result, increasing revenues to turbine owners as well as the environmental benefit to everyone in CO2 savings."

“海上风力涡轮机在北海等恶劣和极端的环境中运行。随着叶片继续变大，其尖端速度可以超过100 m/s。在这些速度下，空气中的任何颗粒，如雨水、灰尘、盐、昆虫等，都可能磨损叶片前缘的表面，这种现象称为“前缘侵蚀”（LEE）。这反过来又改变了叶片的空气动力学形状，影响其效率，并可能使叶片受到进一步和更严重的损坏，从而缩短其工作寿命。虽然LEE的影响因素的程度和性质尚未完全了解，但可以说，在其寿命的某个时间点，所有风力涡轮机叶片都将遭受某种形式或程度的LEE，这将需要加以解决。维护海上风电领域的叶片是一项昂贵且危险的工作，通常需要高技能的绳索接入技术人员按比例缩小叶片以进行前缘维修。在Innovate UK融资轮的第一阶段成功证明了这一概念后，在该项目中，BladeBug Limited将继续与海上可再生能源弹射器合作，开发，建造和测试一个完整的，步行机器人系统，专门设计用于对风力涡轮机叶片的前缘进行大量的详细检查和重复维修。远程执行这些任务的能力将为熟练的绳索访问技术人员腾出时间，以进行专业维修或升级叶片，只有他们才能做到。然后，可以在相同的时间范围内检查和处理更多的叶片，从而最大限度地提高涡轮机的电力输出，从而增加涡轮机所有者的收入，并为每个人节省二氧化碳带来环境效益。"