A wind turbine monitoring device for monitoring a wind turbine including a lightning sensor for detecting a lightning strike on a wind turbine blade includes a lightning parameter acquisition part configured to acquire at least one lightning parameter based on an output of the lightning sensor, a lightning level determination part configured to determine a level of the lightning strike based on the at least one lightning parameter acquired by the lightning parameter acquisition part; and an inspection control part configured to judge whether it is necessary to automatically inspect the wind turbine blade by at least one inspection unit for inspecting the wind turbine blade, according the level of the lightning strike determined by the lightning level determination part.

An abnormality determination method for a wind power generation device includes: a measurement step (step S1) of measuring sound emitted by the wind power generation device and recording acoustic data; an analysis step (step S2) of performing a spectrogram analysis on the acoustic data recorded in the measurement step, on a frequency axis and in a temporal axis space as a temporal change in a frequency characteristic by using the short-time Fourier transform or the wavelet transform; a detection step (step S3) of detecting, from the analysis result in the analysis step, a signal component emitted from an abnormal portion of the wind power generation device in a time corresponding to rotation of the wind power generation device; and a determination step (step S5) of determining that the wind power generation device is abnormal when the signal component detected in the detection step is greater than or equal to a certain threshold value.

A damage assessment arrangement for assessing the extent of damage to a lightning receptor electrically connected to a down conductor of a wind turbine rotor blade includes a measurement pulse module including a pulse generator arranged to transmit a pulse into one end of the down conductor and a return signal detector arranged to detect the return signal; a return signal analysis module configured to determine the extent of alteration of the return signal relative to an expected return signal; and a damage estimation module configured to relate the relative extent of alteration to a measure of damage to rotor blade LPS. The following further describes a wind turbine with such a damage assessment arrangement; and a method of assessing the extent of damage to a rotor blade LPS.

In order to provide an improved and cost-efficient method and tool for performing a defect detection procedure aiming at the detection of a defect underneath an outer protection layer covering the leading edge of a wind turbine generator blade a method is described during which a tool tip is being biased against the surface of the outer protection layer while being guided over the outer protection layer and deviations in the uniformity of the at least one feedback value are sensed to identify potential defects. A tool and a detection unit suitable for the described method is also described.

Systems, methods, and computer program products for detecting lightning strikes. A detection system receives lightning data from a lightning measurement system associated with a wind turbine indicative of an occurrence of a lightning strike at the wind turbine. The lightning data received from the lightning measurement system is compared to lightning data received from a lightning geolocation system. Criteria such as the location and time of occurrence of the lightning strike identified by each set of lightning data is compared to determine if the wind turbine was struck by lightning, and if so, whether and what type of alert to issue.

A method for monitoring damage of a slewing ring bearing of a wind turbine includes arranging at least one optical fiber sensor adjacent to or at least partially on at least one of an inner race or an outer race of the slewing ring bearing. Further, the method includes receiving, via a controller, signals from the at least one optical fiber sensor indicative of one or more changes associated with the slewing ring bearing. The method also includes comparing, via the controller, the one or more changes associated with the slewing ring bearing to a damage threshold. Moreover, the method includes implementing, via the controller, a control action when the one or more changes exceeds the damage threshold to prevent or minimize further damage from occurring to the slewing ring bearing.

A method for detecting a failure condition in one or more components of a wind turbine is provided. The method includes actuating, via a controller, an impact device to generate a vibration having a vibration frequency and a vibration magnitude in the one or more components. The method further includes receiving data indicative of the vibration frequency and the vibration magnitude from a sensor communicatively coupled to the controller. The method further includes determining, via the controller, whether the data indicative of the vibration frequency and/or the vibration magnitude is outside of a predetermined vibration range for the one or more components.

A detection method and detection apparatus for a wind driven generator, and a computer-readable storage medium, a computer device and a detection system for executing the method. The method comprises: acquiring corresponding operation data of a wind driven generator within a preset time period; according to the operation data, then determining comprehensive data corresponding to the wind driven generator, wherein the comprehensive data is used for reflecting a continuous operation state of the wind driven generator within the preset time period; and when the comprehensive data exceeds a first data threshold, generating first alarm information corresponding to the wind driven generator, wherein the first alarm information is used for indicating that the wind driven generator is in an abnormal operation state within the preset time period, the abnormal operation state may cause the increase of a fatigue load of a wind driven generator unit, thereby shortening the service life of the unit, the first data threshold is less than a second data threshold, and the second data threshold is used for determining whether the wind driven generator has a fault. In this method, in response to the comprehensive data exceeding the first data threshold, a wind driven generator processing device can generate the first alarm information corresponding to the wind driven generator, such that the problem of a unit being damaged because the wind driven generator operates in an unhealthy operation state can be avoided to a certain extent.

The present invention relates to method for estimating energy production (107) from a wind turbine (101) with plurality of blades (102). The method comprises obtaining one or more infrared images (103) of each blade (102) of the wind turbine (101). Further, identifying one or more cross-sectional regions (302) of each of the blade (102) using the one or more infrared images (103) based on a boundary region (301), wherein the boundary region (301) is indicating a transition from a laminar air flow to a turbulent air flow. Furthermore, determining plurality of polar values indicative of an aerodynamic profile for each of the one or more cross-sectional regions (302) based on one or more panel method based techniques and the boundary region (301). Finally, estimating the energy production (107) for the wind turbine (101) based on one or more blade (102)-element momentum (BEM) based techniques using the plurality of polar values.

Systems and methods for performing external inspections and internal inspections on wind turbine blades and correlating the external and internal inspections with one another are disclosed herein. A method of inspecting a wind turbine blade includes analyzing an exterior of the blade to produce external blade data, analyzing an interior of the blade to produce internal blade data, correlating a first position of the internal blade data with a second position of the external blade, and displaying an image including the first position and the second position.