Progress and Trends in Damage Detection Methods, Maintenance, and Data-driven Monitoring of Wind Turbine Blades-A Review

In recent decades, renewable energy has attracted attention as a viable energy supply. Among renewable energy sources, offshore wind energy has been considerably growing since longer and larger wind tur-bine composite blades were deployed. The manufacture of the longer and larger composite blades leads to more wind energy production. However, the wind turbine composite blades are susceptible to damage and defects due to multiple structural loads and harsh operating environments in service. Hence, condi-tion monitoring and maintenance of wind turbine composite blades require in-depth investigation to prevent structural damage and defects and to improve remaining lifetime of the composite structure. The types of damage and defects in wind turbine composite blades are typically delamination, debonding, and cracks, which are influenced by the intrinsic structural nonlinearities, manufacturing process stage, and harsh environmental impacts in service. For these reasons, the regular condition monitoring of the composite blades is required to assess degradation in performance and structural condition to minimise levelised energy costs for maintenance. To improve reliability and sustainability, data-driven inspection with digital twin technology is reviewed as a trend of condition monitoring frameworks. Advanced func-tional materials to potentially assist current non-destructive testing (NDT) methods or to be utilised as self-sensing performance are reviewed. From manufacturing to the system level, a comprehensive review on progress and trends of monitoring of wind turbine composite blades is carried out including physics-based NDT methods, data fusion in sensor networks, automated system, mechanics, and digital twin tech-nology with the environmental coupling.(c) 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Automated summary

In recent decades, offshore wind energy has experienced significant growth due to the deployment of longer and larger wind turbine composite blades. However, these composite blades are susceptible to damage and defects, requiring thorough condition monitoring and maintenance to ensure structural integrity. Delamination, debonding, and cracks are common types of damage in wind turbine composite blades, influenced by various factors. Regular condition monitoring is necessary to assess performance degradation and reduce maintenance costs. Data-driven inspection with digital twin technology and advanced functional materials show promise in improving monitoring frameworks.