Thin film sensor network for condition assessment of wind turbine blades

Simon Laflamme; Hussam Saleem; Chinde Venkatesh; Umesh Vaidya; Partha Sarkar; Heather Sauder

doi:10.1117/12.2045425

8 March 2014 Thin film sensor network for condition assessment of wind turbine blades

Simon Laflamme, Hussam Saleem, Chinde Venkatesh, Umesh Vaidya, Partha Sarkar, Heather Sauder

Proceedings Volume 9061, Sensors and Smart Structures Technologies for Civil, Mechanical, and Aerospace Systems 2014; 906116 (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2045425
Event: SPIE Smart Structures and Materials + Nondestructive Evaluation and Health Monitoring, 2014, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Existing sensing solutions facilitating continuous condition assessment of wind turbine blades are limited by a lack of scalability and clear link signal-to-prognosis. With recent advances in conducting polymers, it is now possible to deploy networks of thin film sensors over large areas, enabling low cost sensing of large-scale systems. Here, we propose to use a novel sensing skin consisting of a network of soft elastomeric capacitors (SECs). Each SEC acts as a surface strain gage transducing local strain into measurable changes in capacitance. Using surface strain data facilitates the extraction of physics-based features from the signals that can be used to conduct condition assessment. We investigate the performance of an SEC network at detecting damages. Diffusion maps are constructed from the time series data, and changes in point-wise diffusion distances evaluated to determine the presence of damage. Results are benchmarked against time-series data produced from off-the-shelf resistive strain gauges. This paper presents data from a preliminary study. Results show that the SECs are promising, but the capability to perform damage detection is currently reduced by the presence of parasitic noise in the signal.

Citation Download Citation

Simon Laflamme, Hussam Saleem, Chinde Venkatesh, Umesh Vaidya, Partha Sarkar, and Heather Sauder "Thin film sensor network for condition assessment of wind turbine blades", Proc. SPIE 9061, Sensors and Smart Structures Technologies for Civil, Mechanical, and Aerospace Systems 2014, 906116 (8 March 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2045425

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available