Validation of virtual sensing on subsoil strain data of an offshore wind turbine

Fatigue is the main design driver for offshore wind turbines on monopile foundations. With the first generation of farms reaching their design life structural reserves become apparent. Monitoring of the periodic strains at critical locations enables to assess the remaining useful lifetime. Typically, welded connections beneath the sea bed are determining the lifetime of the entire structure. Since no direct method e.g. visual inspection is feasible to analyze damage progress at these locations estimation methods are applied. Three turbines of the Belgian offshore wind farm Nobel wind were equipped with optical fiber strain gauges over the entire foundation length and with accelerometers on the turbine tower. In this contribution, a modal expansion algorithm is selected to reconstruct subsoil strain from accelerations measured on the tower. Within a short-term analysis strain estimations are validated against measurement data on submerged sensors and fatigue assessment is done on the validated data. © 2019 International Group of Operational Modal Analysis

Jaar van publicatie:2019

Toegankelijkheid:Open