A Revenue Optimizing Commercial Wind Turbine

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An innovative research program is aimed at optimizing the profitability of wind energy assets in Canada. The proposal originates from a successful field research program that now includes students and researchers from both the Universities of Windsor and Western Ontario. Commercial wind farms are large capital investments. The cost of wind turbine maintenance is often significant as it is marked by the cost of service/replacement of the failed component(s) in addition to the cost of turbine downtime during the repairs. The commonly quoted service life of a commercial wind turbine is 20 years, depending on how these machines age, they may reach or exceed this predicted threshold while others may not make it at all. In all cases, as these machines approach their life expectancy it will be required that their operational and structural integrity be recertified in order to be insurable. The ability to determine if wind turbines have sustained damage due to everyday operational loading or due to isolated but extreme loading events like intense wind shears, tornados, or downbursts would be of significant value to a wind park owner. Understanding if, and potentially how, the structural capacity of a machine has been compromised can allow wind park operators to effect maintenance well in advance of more significant, potentially catastrophic failures. It may also help determine how to operate the machines to optimize revenue generation over their service life. The candidate and his team will utilize an evolving structural health monitoring system, developed at the University of Windsor, to track how damage occurs and accumulates during regular operational loading. This includes monitoring of the turbine foundation, an aspect that has not been comprehensively addressed by previous research. To simulate the structural impact of extreme wind events like wind shears, tornados, and downbursts, a 50:1 scaled aeroelastic model will be developed for testing in the WindEEE Dome swirling wind testing facility that is currently under construction at the University of Western Ontario. This multidisciplinary research program has great potential to yield discoveries in aerodynamics, structural mechanics, and machine learning.