Rotor Condition Monitoring for Improved Operational Safety of Offshore Wind Energy Converters

Background: Due to cost effectiveness and operational safety online monitoring of rotor blades is recommended, especially for offshore wind energy converters. Method of Approach: Statistic evaluation of wind speed and power output of a wind energy converter is used to monitor the overall rotor performance including increased blade surface roughness. Nacelle oscillation spectral analysis methods are applied to monitor the rotor faults mass imbalance and aerodynamic asymmetry. Results: Results of ISET’s research work related to online rotor condition monitoring are presented. A description of the fault effects on the rotor, the sensor and data acquisition equipment and a description of the developed signal processing and fault prediction algorithms are given. The paper also presents results from experiments and field tests. Conclusions: The developed algorithms have been verified due to their monitoring capabilities and suitability in commercial online condition monitoring systems.