Acoustic Monitoring Of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

Offshore wind turbines are a rising technology in the renewable energy market worldwide as a method for electricity generation. The primary design for offshore wind turbines is fixed-bottom structures, which can be built in water depths up to 60 m. However, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) estimates that 80% of global offshore wind resources exist in waters with depths greater than 60 m, therefore many companies are turning towards floating structures as a solution (Ezzaidi et al., 2017). One great challenge to this industry will be determining when to conduct maintenance and inspection on these structures. To address this challenge, this project investigated the feasibility of using acoustic emissions for the structural health monitoring of mooring chains and turbine generators of floating offshore wind platforms. This was done by comparing the acoustic emissions of heathy and damaged physical models for a mooring chain and turbine generator. Findings from this project determined that acoustic emissions testing for a mooring chain may not be recommended as a stand-alone method of structural health monitoring, but it may be more reliable for turbine generator monitoring. There are many limitations to using acoustic monitoring for the mooring chain and turbine generator of floating offshore wind turbines, however findings from this project will help to direct the next steps of acoustic emissions monitoring. Grant no. NA18OAR4170090