Reducing uncertainty in wind turbine blade health inspection with image processing techniques

Thumbnail Image
Date
2016-01-01
Authors
Zhang, Huiyi
Major Professor
Advisor
John Jackman
Committee Member
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Altmetrics
Abstract

Structural health inspection has been widely applied in the operation of wind farms to find early cracks in wind turbine blades (WTBs). Increased numbers of turbines and expanded rotor diameters are driving up the workloads and safety risks for site employees. Therefore, it is important to automate the inspection process as well as minimize the uncertainties involved in routine blade health inspection. In addition, crack documentation and trending is vital to assess rotor blade and turbine reliability in the 20 year designed life span. A new crack recognition and classification algorithm is described that can support automated structural health inspection of the surface of large composite WTBs. The first part of the study investigated the feasibility of digital image processing in WTB health inspection and defined the capability of numerically detecting cracks as small as hairline thickness. The second part of the study identified and analyzed the uncertainty of the digital image processing method. A self-learning algorithm was proposed to recognize and classify cracks without comparing a blade image to a library of crack images. The last part of the research quantified the uncertainty in the field conditions and the image processing methods.

Series Number
Journal Issue
Is Version Of
Versions
Series
Type
dissertation
Comments
Rights Statement
Copyright
Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 UTC 2016
Funding
Supplemental Resources
Source