Insensys - Blade Condition Monitoring

SENSING FOR A BETTER WORLD BLADE CONDITON MONITORING WIND ENERGY

BLADE DAMAGE CAUSES $850,000 LOST REVENUE

COST OF BLADE DAMAGE 30% of blade replacements can be avoided with early detection. Costs associated with non-operating turbines escalate quickly and have a substantial impact to the profitability of a wind farm. A single major blade damage incident can result in 3 months of downtime, causing $850,000 in lost revenue before even taking replacement or repair costs into account. A turbine blade replacement is over 6x more expensive than a repair. Early Detection of faults reduces the costs of repair, alongside this a repair offers a significantly smaller carbon footprint enhancing an Operator's green credentials. To maximise return on investment Operators are under increasing pressure to ensure consistent operations, this can lead to fast re-active decisions which are often costly. Integrating the Insensys Blade Condition Monitoring System within your turbine provides an overview of the blade's health allowing Operators to detect and define changes in blade characteristics.

Early detection of turbine structural problems reduces maintenance costs by $0.75/kWh, offering a potential saving of over $500,000 per turbine. Insensys systems have been leading the way in control applications for over 20 years, with over 8,500 system shipped globally. With capabilities to provide a variety of fibre optic sensing solutions customers can access accurate and real-time data on the performance and health of turbine blades.

COST OF BLADE DAMAGE Reducing operating costs Ongoing monitoring of the condition and structural health of the blades allows for early detection of faults. Detecting a change in the blades condition or performance enable Operators to make pro-active choices to protect the turbine and minimise further damage. Thus signi昀椀cantly reducing both turbine downtime and the overall repair costs. Early detection ensures faults are addressed before they become severe, reducing the risk of unexpected failures and costly new blades. Monitoring also plays a critical role in optimising scheduled maintenance. Using Insensys data Operators have a enhanced view of the condition of blades allowing for predictive maintenance strategies to be utilised. Overall using a sensing system to detect turbine structural problems early you can reduce maintenance costs by $0.75/kWh, offering potential savings of over $500,000 per turbine.

Monitoring blades with fibre optic sensing Insensys Blade CMS provides a variety of fibre optic sensors installed along the length of a wind turbine blade. With Insensys Blade CMS we partner with our customers to understand their blades to determine the best sensor solution and installation location.

BLADE CHARACTERISTICS Blade aerodynamic pro昀椀ling Blade bending moment analysis Taken directly from sensor wave length via a calibration routine you are able to determine the datum value. This can be monitored to highlight changes in the bade bending moment which will indicate changes in behavior or performance of the blade. This also allows for longer term tracking of the data for lifetime fatigue analysis. Blade natural frequency Data collected from 昀椀bre optic sensors is analysed to monitor changes in natural frequency. By monitoring these changes over a period of time, Insensys software highlights changes in the natural frequency of the blade. These changes inform of weakening or damage. 1547.34 1547.32 1547.3 1547.28 1547.26 1547.24 1547.22 This peak shows a change 1547.2 0123 in the blade's natural 20 21 22 23 24 frequency indicating possible damage. Blade characteristics Installing a variety of 昀椀bre optic sensors in speci昀椀c locations along the length of a blade allows for early detection of a change in the blade characteristics. Using Finite Element Leading edge debonds Analysis (FEA) Insensys have modelled di昀昀erent types of blade damage. Sensors in distinct areas inside the blade surface identifiy changes in strain, stiffness and resonant frequency. Transverse cracks These changes indicate where damage has occurred or is likely to occur without preventive maintenance. Shear web debonds

Functionality Bending Moments Edgewise, Flapwise and Rotor monitoring shows unexpected behaviour and accelerated wear. Rugged design Fatigue Monitoring Captures load history over a period of time. Individual Pitch Control Adjusts the pitch of all rotor blades individually in real-time. Aerodynamic Imbalance & Pitch Misalignment Identifies difference in a single blade’s mean bending moment & mean of remaining blades. Rotor Mass Monitoring & Imbalance Changes can indicate ice build up, water ingress and gross blade damage. Acoustic Emissions Listens for changes in sound of the blades to indicate changes in performance and also monitor debris within the blade. Blade Resonance Provides insight into blade damage and gradual degradation over time. Tower Monitoring Strain monitoring allows fatigue calculations, bending moments monitoring the stability and freqency measurments. Our experienced team determine Rotor Bending Moment which algorithms suit your Transforms loads resolved into moments capturing requirements to provide impulses leading to accelerated drive train wear. enhanced functionality that continues to evolve as more sensor types and locations are explored. Pricing o昀昀ers 昀氀exibility, Monopile Monitoring ensuring maximum value from Strain monitoring allows fatigue calculations, your chosen algorithms. bending moments monitoring the stability.

SENSING SOLUTION Rugged design Reliability Simple installation System architecture Sensor Solutions Insensys systems have been optimised to utilise a variety of fibre optic sensors. To ease installation and increase durability, sensors are embedded within composite material during production forming a sensor patch. Patches are a light-weight design, suitable for a variety of applications and encompasses over 20 years industry knowledge and expertise. Insensys patches can be produced in a variety of designs to suit customer requirements and installation methods. Interrogators A range of interrogators to suit multiple applications utilising Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) or Time Division Multiplexing (TDM). Insensys interrogators provide a large strain range for every sensor enabling sampling quickly and accurately. Data can be delivered via multiple communication method and further integrated with turbine control systems to compliment additional sensing data providing a holistic overview of turbine health. Qualified for 20+ years, the robust and compact design provides a solid state solution for even the harshest of environments.

Real-time Design Incident Structural feedback improvement analysis monitoring CASE STUDY Consistent damage to a number of Insensys sensors installed along blades Blade damage identified on 3 blades blades from unknown cause. to monitor bending moment. with bending moment imbalance. Situation An Operator managing a number of small wind farms in Europe approached us after identifying a number of turbines that were consistently su昀昀ering from blade damage. This was signi昀椀cantly increasing their operational costs and causing them excessive downtime. Solution Insensys carried our a retro昀椀t installation to monitor the condition of the turbine blades over a 14 day period. The sensors allowed an individual blade's bending moment to be monitored during operation. Diagnosis Upon completion of the 2 week test all data was post-analysed using Insensys algorithms. Insensys identified one turbine with a major issue (approx. 18% bending moment imbalance between the blades, and two more with minor imbalances). After investigation, the team determined that the cause of the blade with the major issue was damage due to lightning strike, the Operator was able to quickly carry out a repair returning the turbine to full operational capacity. Without Insensys this would not have been identified as quickly thus justifying the implementation of Insensys CMS..

CHOOSE INSENSYS Reliability Innovation Traceable quality Developing to proactively 100% inspection and test prior

insensys.com sensing for a better world