Structural health monitoring of offshore wind turbines using automated Operational Modal Analysis
Devriendt, C.; Magalhães, F.; Weijtjens, W.; De Sitter, G.; Cunha, A.; Guillaume, P. (2013). Structural health monitoring of offshore wind turbines using automated Operational Modal Analysis, in: Chang, F.-K. (Ed.) Structural Health Monitoring 2013: a roadmap to intelligent structures. pp. 2415-2422
In: Chang, F.-K. (Ed.) (2013). Structural Health Monitoring 2013: a roadmap to intelligent structures. DEStech Publications: [s.l.]. ISBN 978-1-60595-115-7. 2810 (2 vols.) pp., more
This paper shows the first results of a long term monitoring campaign on an offshore wind turbine in the Belgian North Sea. It focuses on the vibration levels and resonant frequencies of the fundamental modes of the support structure. These parameters are crucial to minimize the O&M costs and to extend the lifetime of offshore wind turbine structures.For monopile foundations, scouring and reduction in foundation integrity over time are especially problematic because they reduce the fundamental structural resonance of the support structure, aligning that resonance frequency more closely to the lower frequencies. Since both the broadband wave energy and the rotating frequency of the turbine are contained in this low frequency band, the lower natural frequency can create resonant behavior increasing fatigue damage. Continuous monitoring of the effect of scour on the dynamics of the wind turbine will help to optimize the maintenance activities on the scour protection system.To allow proper continuous monitoring during operation, reliable state-of-the-art operational modal analysis techniques should be used. Those techniques are presented in this paper. The methods are also automated, so that the system can track the natural frequencies and damping ratios in a reliable manner.
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