Objetivo
Wind energy is a fast growing (>20% pa) industry worldwide and European companies have two-thirds of the share, according to European Wind Energy Association. Due to the increase in wind farms, new techniques are required to provide maintenance and inspection of the wind installations with reduced cost and enhanced reliability. It is estimated that the business opportunity for wind turbine blade inspection is at least €1bn per annum, and is increasing rapidly.
In the DashWin project, a novel non-contact NDT system will be developed. It will consist of an advanced shearography kit and a robotic deployment platform. The system will be able to inspect the composite wind turbine blades (WTB) on-site without dismantling the blades, so that the degradation of WTB due to fatigue or natural incidents can be found before a breakdown or catastrophic failure occurs which is significantly better than existing systems.
Objectives:
• Develop a novel shearographic system able to inspect WTB on-site without dismantling the blades. This will be the first time that a shearography system is used for inspecting a WTB in-service at a wind energy installation.
The proposed concept and system is not limited to NDT of rotating WTBs, and can be extended to inspect other dynamic structures with large rigid body motion.
• Develop a wavefront splitter and/or a compact spatial carrier mask to achieve simultaneous spatial phase shifting.
• Integrate the shearography system with a robotics platform to carry out on-site inspections.
• Develop a comprehensive software package for image processing, automatic phase compensation, result interpretation and information storage.
• Validate the reliability of the new system and associated opto-mechanical set-ups through a stringent field trial test. System assembly and potential manufacturing routes will also be established.
• Develop and validate a new procedure for conducting regular inspection of WTB using the new robotic shearography system.
Ámbito científico
Tema(s)
Convocatoria de propuestas
FP7-SME-2011
Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoria
Régimen de financiación
BSG-SME - Research for SMEsCoordinador
CB21 6AL Cambridge
Reino Unido