A New Hybrid Fault Detection Method for Wind Turbine Blades Using Recursive PCA and Wavelet-Based PDF

This paper introduces a new condition monitoring approach for extracting fault signatures in wind turbine blades by utilizing the data from a real-time Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. A hybrid fault detection system based on a combination of Generalized Regression Neural Network Ensemble for Single Imputation (GRNN-ESI) algorithm, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and wavelet-based Probability Density Function (PDF) approach is proposed in this work. The proposed fault detection strategy accurately detects incipient blade failures and leads to improved maintenance cost and availability of the system. Experimental test results based on data from a wind farm in southwestern Ontario, Canada, illustrate the effectiveness and high accuracy of the proposed monitoring approach.