Design of a Low-Cost Strain Gauge Array System for Wind Turbine Blade Damage Detection

In an ever-adapting world, renewable energy resources are becoming increasingly relied upon for modern life. The rapidly expanding industry of wind energy, which has come to dominate this sector in production and versatility, suffers from turbines which face catastrophic blade failures and high maintenance costs. Many new projects are being developed to prevent, detect, and mitigate damage to turbine components to combat these issues. While there are several tools which actively determine turbine blade damage, there are currently no widely used systems to monitor the blades remotely and consistently during operation. This project proposes an inexpensive strain measurement array, comparable to lab equipment, which can collect data for the inverse finite element method and detect damage. The basic system designed could be incorporated into a turbine’s supervisory control and data acquisition to decrease turbine downtime, improve operational safety, and extend the lifespan of wind turbine blades, reducing maintenance costs and improving sustainability within the wind energy industry.