Sensors for condition monitoring of different components of (offshore-)wind power plants. Possibilities for further evaluation in NOWITECH and beyond

In this report an overview is given over condition monitoring (CM) and structural health monitoring (SHM) for offshore wind turbines with a special focus on two innovative sensor types – Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) and Microelectromechnical Systems (MEMS) sensors. Based on a limited literature survey and interviews with wind turbine operators the state of the art and the future needs in this field are assessed for CM and SHM. A short overview is given over different concepts using FBGs for composite material monitoring and for other CM applications. MEMS sensors are described and some available sensors are shown as well as concepts for (e.g. wireless) networks of such sensors for CM and SHM. The need for remote presence and cost-effective operations is a strong case for systems including CM and SHM. Thus the need for new sensor types is widely considered to be a key to future off-shore wind energy harvesting. In conclusion an outlook is given on future work including the assessment of such sensor types in test structures and real life application tests.