A Blog from our colleagues at GOM explains the ways that our 3D optical scanning equipment can assist companies in the Wind Power industry with inspection of turbine blades and plants.
Our 3D scanning and quality inspection services can assist with;
Efficient inspection of rotor blades, mounting surfaces and plants
Modern wind farms play a significant role in our electricity supply. Here, turbines must be inspected with maximum efficiency. With 3D measurement technology, mounting surfaces, e.g., for offshore wind farms, can be inspected quickly and easily. 3D data are also used to inspect the production and wear of rotor blades to optimise production and repair.
Inspection of mounting surfaces on wind turbines
The individual construction segments of wind turbines sometimes only meet for the first-time during assembly at the final site. Using the portable TRITOP photogrammetry system, mounting bolts and surfaces can be measured and inspected in less than one hour. This is also possible for offshore foundations or structural parts. Thus, mounting bolts that are not in the correct position can be identified and adjusted before the actual setup. This ensures smooth assembly of wind turbines without the risk of additional costs or delays.
Power Generation Mounting Surfaces – 3D inspection of rotor blades
Having information about the form of the effective surfaces of rotor blades and turbines is vital to control and optimise production processes. Using GOM’s optical metrology, the shapes and dimensions of rotor blades can be checked against CAD or a master data set either full-field or point-based. The measuring data is also used via reverse engineering for a surface reconstruction and to copy an optimal rotor.
Rotor Inspection – Bending fatigue testing of rotor blades
Rotor blades are exposed to high stresses on account of their own weight and the impact of irregular wind loads. For this reason, they are subjected to extensive bench tests to verify their operational stability and strength. Their behaviour is analysed under normal and shear stress up to the point of bending fracture. For the precise analysis of strain and deformation on rotor blade surfaces, the mobile and flexible optical measuring systems from GOM can be integrated quickly and easily in rotor blade test benches.
This provides valuable information on the behaviour of rotor blade structures in terms of strength and local tensile and strain properties. The optical measuring data can also be used to verify simulation computation and enable the continuous optimisation of wind turbines.
Dynamic deformation analysis of wind turbines during running operation
GOM’s dynamic online deformation measuring systems are standard tools for measuring and visualising deformations on aerodynamically loaded structures. This technology is also used to analyse the overall structure of wind energy converters (WEC) to perform modal analyses and to monitor the vibration behaviour during operation. Acceleration, deformation (torsion, bending etc.) and the angular position of the rotor blades as well as vibrations of the entire plant and the deflection of the tower under wind load and emergency braking are analysed.