Offshore wind turbine reliability through complete loads measurements

This project aims at completely instrumenting a 3.6MW offshore wind turbine and measuring real time loads on all the components, as well as measuring wind and wave inputs on the machine. The wind is measured using a nacelle mounted Laser anemometer (LIDAR). At least 6 surrounding turbines will also be instrumented to acquire wind and performance data. These measurements will reveal the realistic loads, wind and waves on a state of the art modern wind turbine. The proposed work comprises of 2 main components: 1) Installation and maintenance of instrumentation on a Siemens (SWT) 3.6MW machine, gathering of loads data and maintenance of a loads data base; with the assistance of DONG and Siemens Wind Power, Risø DTU is responsible for the implementation of this task. 2 Acquired data analyses and modeling; the task is a joint activity for the three participants. Focusing on the structural design aspects of creating a modern offshore wind turbine, the goal of the proposed project is to pave the way for the future’s 10+MW wind turbine, with full range power limitation capability. The reduction of uncertainties, being the core of the project, will lead to more optimal construction and design of the tower, foundation and other components.