Crack monitoring of operational wind turbine foundations

Perry, Marcus and McAlorum, Jack and Fusiek, Grzegorz and Niewczas, Pawel and McKeeman, Iain and Rubert, Tim (2017) Crack monitoring of operational wind turbine foundations. Sensors, 17 (8). 1925. ISSN 1424-8220

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    Abstract

    The degradation of onshore, reinforced-concrete wind turbine foundations is usually assessed via above-ground inspections, or through lengthy excavation campaigns that suspend wind power generation. Foundation cracks can and do occur below ground level, and while sustained measurements of crack behaviour could be used to quantify the risk of water ingress and reinforcement corrosion, these cracks have not yet been monitored during turbine operation. Here, we outline the design, fabrication and field installation of subterranean fibre-optic sensors for monitoring the opening and lateral displacements of foundation cracks during wind turbine operation. We detail methods for in situ sensor characterisation, verify sensor responses against theoretical tower strains derived from wind speed data, and then show that measured crack displacements correlate with monitored tower strains. Our results show that foundation crack opening displacements respond linearly to tower strain and do not change by more than ±5 μm. Lateral crack displacements were found to be negligible. We anticipate that the work outlined here will provide a starting point for real-time, long-term and dynamic analyses of crack displacements in future. Our findings could furthermore inform the development of cost-effective monitoring systems for ageing wind turbine foundations.

    Author(s):Perry, Marcus ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9173-8198, McAlorum, Jack ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8348-9945, Fusiek, Grzegorz ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3361-7803, Niewczas, Pawel ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3291-1725, McKeeman, Iain ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9923-2922 and Rubert, Tim
    Item type:Article
    ID code:61650
    Keywords:fiber optic sensing, fiber Bragg gratings, concrete cracks, displacement sensors, structural health monitoring, life extension, field trial, Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General), Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering, Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Analytical Chemistry, Electrical and Electronic Engineering
    Subjects:Technology > Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
    Technology > Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
    Department:Faculty of Engineering > Civil and Environmental Engineering
    Faculty of Engineering > Electronic and Electrical Engineering
    Depositing user: Pure Administrator
    Date deposited:29 Aug 2017 09:12
    Last modified:27 Nov 2019 05:00
    Related URLs:
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/61650
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