Skip to main content
TU-Clausthal Energy Research Centre of Lower Saxony

Innovation area III

Life cycle management of offshore wind turbines and wind farms

Information on the life cycle of individual wind turbines and offshore wind farms is essential in order to create scope for action through optimised operating scenarios and maintenance strategies when realising offshore expansion targets.

In innovation area III, the necessary foundations for key issues are created by comprehensively analysing structural and SCADA data using innovative methods of population-based structural health monitoring:

  • Maintenance and repowering as the basis for a techno-economic assessment of the required expansion
  • Extension of the remaining service life through optimised inspection and maintenance of support structures and rotor blades
Offshore-Windräder und das Logo der Forschungsplattform Wind
© ForWind

Sub-project III.1

Data-based structural health monitoring (SHM)

In this sub-project, a suitable SHM concept for the continuous monitoring of the support structure, tower and rotor blades is applied to existing sensors and measurement technology in the offshore wind farm and supplemented as required.

The extent to which existing sensor and monitoring infrastructure and already recorded data can be utilised must be agreed with the operator. The innovation lies in the comprehensive analysis of structural and SCADA data already available in the OWP using probabilistic and deterministic system identification methods and AI-based methods.

The aim is to identify all relevant operating states and system parameters on the one hand and to identify critical operating states and damage scenarios on the other, which, if known, can be eliminated in order to significantly extend the remaining service life of a wind farm.

Researchers

Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil.
Raimund Rolfes
Universität Hannover/ForWind

Dr.-Ing. Tanja Grießmann
Universität Hannover/ForWind

Sub-project III.2

Data-driven methods for determining the remaining service life of support structures

Based on the SHM concept from SP III.1, data-driven methods for determining the remaining service life of support structures are being developed and validated, thus laying the foundation for their acceptance in the certification process.

The main objective of this sub-project is the (further) development of data-driven methods in the co-production phase, so that the remaining service life of load-bearing structures can be estimated even with incomplete data. The further development aims firstly to utilise the available data as comprehensively as possible, secondly to investigate the benefits of additional measurement data and thirdly to be able to quantify the uncertainty in the extrapolations.

Researchers

Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil.
Raimund Rolfes
Universität Hannover/ForWind

Sub-project III.3

Site-specific assessment of the remaining service life of rotor blades using data-based finite element modelling

Understanding the real load and environmental conditions is crucial for analysing the actual performance (service life) of the blade. One challenge in this context is the limited availability of local stress data for re-evaluating the blade's service life under real operating conditions.

Here, the living lab offers the unique opportunity to utilise data from the SHM system for a real and locally resolved fatigue analysis using a generic FE model of the rotor blade to determine the site-specific causes of damage development.

Researchers

Dr.-Ing. Sven Scheffler
Universität Hannover/ForWind