Defect Monitoring of a Wind Turbine Blade Surface by using Surface Wave Damping

These days much efforts are being dedicated to wind power as a potential source of renewable energy. To maintain effective and uniform generation of energy, defect preservation of turbine blade is essential because it directly takes effects on the efficiency of power generation. For the effective maintenance, early measurements of blade defects are very important. However, current technologies such as ultrasonic waves and thermal imaging inspection methods are not suitable because of long inspection time and non-real time inspection. To supplement the problems, the study introduced a method for real time defect monitoring of a blade surface based on surface wave technology. We examined the effect of various parameters such as micro-cracks and peelings on the propagation of surface wave.