AZIMUTH-DOMAIN DETECTION OF AN OCCURRING ROTOR IMBALANCE IN A WIND TURBINE

Systems, methods, and computer program products for monitoring occurring rotor imbalances. A dynamic characteristic sensor determines the value of a dynamic characteristic of a wind turbine, e.g., of a nacelle thereof, such that the dynamic characteristic includes a component aligned with a rotor plane of the rotor. The dynamic characteristic is sampled when the rotor of the wind turbine is at each of a plurality of azimuth angles (ψn) to produce a sequence of dynamic values (a(ψ)). An azimuth-domain transform is applied to the sequence of dynamic values (a(ψ)) to generate at least one inverse-angle component (A(γk)). Rotor imbalances are then detected based on the inverse-angle component (A(γk)), such as by comparing a value of the inverse-angle component (A(γk)) to a threshold, and the rotation of the rotor is stopped.