Vibro-Acoustic Analysis for Remotely Condition Monitoring Approach of Wind Turbine

Abstract

Wind turbines are increasingly installed in onshore and offshore as an adequate sustainable source to produce large amount of electric energy. However, high maintenance cost is one of the biggest problems in installing and maintaining the wind turbines, due to harsh operating environment, i.e., dust storm, extreme heat, rainy and severe weather conditions. Hence, online condition monitoring is an effective technique for early fault detecting and supporting the predictive maintenance decision. Vibro-acoustic analysis has concerned as an effective practical method for remote condition monitoring and accurate diagnose of abnormal operation of wind turbines. This work has proposed an approach for remotely condition monitoring of a practical wind turbine based upon the analysis of the measured experimental data of vibro-acoustic signals of a farm wind turbine at various operating speeds. The analysis of vibro-acoustic waveforms and spectra can provide valuable information for early fault detection and diagnosis approach. It concludes that the characteristic parameters of the vibro-acoustic waveforms and the excited frequencies can be effective features to diagnose abnormal condition of the wind turbine system.