Advanced wind turbine damage calculator and remaining life estimator

Wind turbines are designed to operate under an estimated profile of environmental conditions at a given site. The IEC 64100-1 standard defines classes of wind turbines according to these conditions. At the design stage, manufacturers size their equipment according to each class. The design life of wind turbines is nominally 20 years. Today, the average age of wind turbines in Quebec is about 10 years. The high costs of acquisition, installation and downtime are leading wind farm operators to question the optimal maintenance policy to adopt. Therefore, the development of decision support tools to establish an economically justified choice (e.g. repair or replacement) while minimising the risk associated with operating such equipment. Thus, the accurate estimation of the residual reliability of this type of equipment becomes a strategic issue for fleet operators. This project involves multidisciplinary work in various fields such as fracture mechanics, reliability, prognostics and learning. In addition to the operational data already available, we plan to instrument 3 wind turbines. With the usual sensors (e.g. vibration, temperature...) and the installation of strain gauges at the connection between the blades and the hub (point of maximum stress), we plan to capture the actual profile of the mechanical stresses induced by the wind. This captured profile will be extrapolated to simulate a plausible life profile for a given site. Knowledge of the terrain topography will allow the profile to be extrapolated to similar sites. Fatigue will be investigated as the primary failure mode. The planned work will contribute to a better understanding of the nature and magnitudes of the mechanical stresses on the structure, which will allow a more accurate calculation of the residual life and the establishment of accurate prognoses

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