System and method for performing external and internal inspections of wind turbine blades
AssigneeRES Digital Solutions Limited
InventorsAndrew George Oliver, Javier Canosa Louzán, Alexander Devon Bamberger, Jack Noakes, José Antonio Riveiro Rodríguez
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Abstract
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.
Claims20
A method of inspecting a blade of a wind turbine, the method comprising:
- analyzing an exterior of the blade to produce external blade data;
- analyzing an interior of the blade to produce internal blade data, the analyzing the interior of the blade comprising detecting interior dimensions of the blade based on distances to interior surfaces of the blade detected by a distance sensor;
- correlating a first position in the internal blade data with a second position in the external blade data, wherein the first position is determined at least partially based on the detected interior dimensions of the blade;
- and
- displaying an image comprising the first position and the second position.
A system for performing an inspection of a blade of a wind turbine, the system comprising:
- an external sensing device comprising a first sensor configured to analyze an exterior of the blade and produce an external data signal;
- an internal sensing device comprising a second sensor configured to analyze an interior of the blade and produce an internal data signal;
- and
- a display configured to display an image comprising:
- an exterior image of the blade generated from the external data signal, the exterior image comprising a first external position on the blade;
- and
- an interior image of the blade generated from the internal data signal, the interior image comprising a first internal position on the blade corresponding to the first external position, wherein the first internal position is determined based at least in part on interior dimensions of the blade detected by the second sensor based on distances to surfaces of the blade.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code for assessment of a wind turbine blade, the code comprising instructions executable by a processor to:
- receive a first data stream corresponding to an external inspection of the wind turbine blade;
- receive a second data stream corresponding to an internal inspection of the wind turbine blade;
- determine a deflection or curvature of the wind turbine blade based on at least one of the first data stream or the second data stream;
- detect a defect on the wind turbine blade based on the first data stream or the second data stream;
- and
- identify a first position in the first data stream corresponding to a position of the defect and a second position in the second data stream corresponding to the position of the defect, the second position being at least partially based on the determined deflection or curvature of the wind turbine blade.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.