Wind turbine non-intrusive torque monitoring

Wind Turbine (WT) global installed capacity is expected to increase from 318GW to 596GW between 2013 and 2019, with an increasing proportion being from offshore wind farms. With up to 70% of Operations and Maintenance (O&M) costs coming from unplanned maintenance, the adoption of cost effective condition monitoring (CM) techniques is crucial for competitive development of offshore wind. Monitoring the torque of a WT can provide much information about the WT's health and it has been shown to be successful in the detection of faults in the main drive train components. Although WT torsional effects are important, torque measurement on such a large, low speed, inaccessible machine is practically and logistically difficult, although it is possible using costly specialised intrusive in-line equipment. This paper presents the development of a non-intrusive method for monitoring the drive train torque using timing differences between optical probe measurements along a shaft. An algorithm has been developed and initially verified using a simulated WT for speed and torque data. The algorithm torque was accurate to within ±3% of the input. The initial performance of the proposed technique has been successfully tested experimentally under both steady and transient torque conditions. Experimental results show good agreement between the algorithm predictions and the measurements. The proposed algorithm successfully detects changes in shaft speed and torque, with the torque mean percentage error within 16-25%. Once implemented on a WT drive train, the proposed non-intrusive method can overcome the majority of problems limiting the industrial application of CM systems (CMSs) based on shaft torque measurements.