Utilization of aerial infrared imaging for monitoring wind turbine blade health

风力机叶片以高相对速度运行，并暴露在不稳定的风载荷和恶劣的环境条件下，包括雨、冰雹、闪电等。因此，叶片经常损坏，导致风力机维修中停机时间排在第二位。因此，需要进行例行检查，以便及时确定叶片损坏情况，以便及时进行所需的维修，以防止进一步损坏和/或灾难性故障。这类检查通常由专门的技术人员执行，大大增加了风力发电场的运营和维护成本。这一提议将允许使用便携式仪器平台，在可见光和红外范围内进行高清晰度成像，以评估运行中的涡轮机叶片的健康状况，最大限度地减少所需时间，并避免任何检查停机时间。这项工作将包括在风洞设施中进行受控实验，以及对现场数据进行分析，以帮助开发有效的算法来进行稳健的叶片损伤检测。

Wind turbine blades operate at high relative velocities and are exposed to unsteady wind loading and harshenvironmental conditions, including rain, hail, lightning, etc. As a consequence, blades are damaged frequentlyand the associated repairs amount for the second largest downtime in turbine maintenance. Thus, routineinspections are required to identify blade damage in a timely fashion, so that required repairs can be performedin time to prevent further damage and/or catastrophic failure. Such inspections are commonly performed byspecialized technical staff, adding significant cost to operation and maintenance of wind farms. This proposalwill enable the use of a portable instrument platform involving high definition imaging in visible and infraredranges to assess blades health on an operating turbine, minimizing the required time and avoiding anydowntime for inspections. The work will involve controlled experiments in a wind tunnel facilities as well asanalysis of field data to help develop effective algorithms for robust blade damage detection.