Condition monitoring and vibration analysis of wind turbine

Abstract

Health condition monitoring through comprehensive monitoring, incipient fault diagnosis, and the prediction of impending faults allows for the promotion of the long-term performance of wind turbines, particularly those in harsh environments such as cold regions. The condition monitoring of wind turbines is characterized by the difficulties associated with the lack of measured data and the nonstationary, stochastic, and complicated nature of vibration responses. This article presents a characterization of the vibrations of an operational wind turbine by spectrogram, scalogram, and bi-spectrum analyses. The results reveal varied nonstationary stochastic properties and mode-coupling instability in the vibrations of the tested wind turbine tower. The analysis illustrates that the wind turbine system vibrations exhibit certain non-Gaussian stochastic properties. An analytical model is used to evaluate the nonstationary, stochastic phenomena and mode-coupling phenomena observed in the experimental results. These results are of significance for the fault diagnosis of wind turbine system in operation as well as for improving fatigue designs beyond the wind turbulence spectral models recommended in the standards.