Rubert Tim, Perry Marcus, Fusiek Grzegorz, McAlorum Jack, Niewczas Pawel, Brotherston Amanda, McCallum David
Doctoral Training Centre in Wind and Marine Energy Systems, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XQ, UK.
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow G1 1XJ, UK.
Sensors (Basel). 2017 Dec 31;18(1):97. doi: 10.3390/s18010097.
Onshore wind turbine foundations are generally over-engineered as their internal stress states are challenging to directly monitor during operation. While there are industry drivers to shift towards more economical foundation designs, making this transition safely will require new monitoring techniques, so that the uncertainties around structural health can be reduced. This paper presents the initial results of a real-time strain monitoring campaign for an operating wind turbine foundation. Selected reinforcement bars were instrumented with metal packaged optical fibre strain sensors prior to concrete casting. In this paper, we outline the sensors' design, characterisation and installation, and present 67 days of operational data. During this time, measured foundation strains did not exceed 95 μ ϵ , and showed a strong correlation with both measured tower displacements and the results of a foundation finite element model. The work demonstrates that real-time foundation monitoring is not only achievable, but that it has the potential to help operators and policymakers quantify the conservatism of their existing design codes.
陆上风力涡轮机基础通常设计过度，因为其内部应力状态在运行期间难以直接监测。虽然行业有动力转向更经济的基础设计，但要安全地实现这种转变将需要新的监测技术，以便减少结构健康方面的不确定性。本文介绍了对一个运行中的风力涡轮机基础进行实时应变监测活动的初步结果。在混凝土浇筑前，选定的钢筋上安装了金属封装的光纤应变传感器。在本文中，我们概述了传感器的设计、特性和安装，并展示了67天的运行数据。在此期间，测得的基础应变不超过95με，并与测得的塔筒位移以及基础有限元模型的结果显示出很强的相关性。这项工作表明，实时基础监测不仅是可行的，而且有潜力帮助运营商和政策制定者量化现有设计规范的保守程度。
