Review of vibration-based damage assessment in wind turbines

Wind turbines play Important part in the worldwide transition to renewable energy, but, at the same time, their long-term operation and reliability are threatened by mechanical and environmental stresses. This dissertation presents a broad perspective on the approaches related to vibration-based damage assessment as predictive maintenance and safety tools for wind turbines. This work thoroughly deals with using different structural health monitoring techniques over a wide range of critical components of the wind turbine, like blades, gearboxes, towers, and foundations. The primary research on wind turbine blades focuses on vibration analysis techniques that monitor anomalies and progressive wear that could lead to blade failure. Techniques such as modal analysis, operational deflection shapes, and frequency response functions are evaluated for their effectiveness in early damage detection and providing actionable insights into blade integrity. The thesis also looks into condition monitoring systems for detecting gearbox faults, where vibration signals are presented with the use of advanced signal analysis and machine-learning algorithms to detect characteristic patterns of gear and bearing failures before them leading to considerable damage or failure in operations. This part focuses on integrating time-frequency analysis methods that increase the possibility of detecting transient faults in complex gearbox systems. Further, vibration-based monitoring strategies of the wind turbine towers and their foundations are discussed, since these are critical structural components for effective monitoring due to the risks associated with foundation settlement and structural fatigue. Advanced sensing technologies and data analytics in such devices can be explored for their ability to provide real-time monitoring and real-time feedback on the health status of the structures in these massive installations. It identifies these methods while synthesizing the current technological gaps and challenges of vibration-based SHM. This opens the way for future research to make improvements in these systems in terms of accuracy, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness. The present technologies of these systems would be developed so that wind turbines become sustainable and effective, hence further use and success in renewable energy sources.