Image credit: Purdue University

Purdue University and Sandia National Laboratory researchers have developed a technique that uses computational software to constantly monitor forces exerted on wind turbine blades. The data is fed into an active control system that precisely adjusts components to new conditions in order to optimize efficiency. The new system could also help improve turbine reliability by providing critical real-time info to the control system which could prevent catastrophic wind turbine damage caused by high winds.

Engineers embedded sensors – uniaxial and triaxial accelerometers – inside a wind turbine blade, while the blade was in the building process. The test blade is now being monitored at the US Department of Agriculture's Agriculture Research Service lab in Bushland, Texas, operated by Sandia and USDA. Sensors such as these could be used in future generation turbine blades, and allow the turbine blades to change geometry to answer the changing wind conditions, much like airplane wings are able to change shape with moving surfaces (flaps, control surfaces). By changing the aerodynamic characteristics of wind turbine blades, a greater control over their performance in various wind conditions can be achieved. Research findings, using the trio of sensors and the "estimator model" software, accurately shows how much force is being put on the blades.

Detailed findings from this research study, done by Jonathan White, Douglas Adams and Sandia engineer Mark Rumsey, are going to be presented on May 4, at the Windpower 2009 Conference & Exhibition in Chicago.