The operation and maintenance (O&M) costs associated with wind turbines are comparatively high due to the size and complexity of large wind turbine systems. Remote and harsh field locations such as offshore wind farms can further rise those costs. There is a clear need to instrument wind turbines to monitor their behavior to identify damage and deterioration in an effort to lower O&M costs. Towards this end, this study focuses on the deployment of a low-cost wireless monitoring system on a 3kW wind turbine tower to monitor the behavior of the tower under various operational states. Acceleration data and its spectral representation is used to ascertain the normal (undamaged) behavior of the wind turbine under varying environmental and operational conditions.
doi: 10.12783/SHM2015/354