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US 9,714,085 B2Granted
Monitoring of wind turbines
AssigneePurdue Research Foundation
InventorsJonathan R. White, Douglas E. Adams, Josh Paquette
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Method and apparatus for determining the deflection or curvature of a rotating blade, such as a wind turbine blade or a helicopter blade. Also, methods and apparatus for establishing an inertial reference system on a rotating blade.
Claims22
A method of predicting the deflection of a wind turbine blade operating in a wind, comprising:
- providing the wind turbine blade having two ends and a length therebetween with one end attached to a rotatable hub, an actuator for controlling the wind turbine blade, a controller in communication with the actuator, and an accelerometer attached to the wind turbine blade at a predetermined station along the length;
- expressing the lateral deflection of the wind turbine blade as a function of the length of the wind turbine blade;
- rotating the wind turbine blade by the wind about the hub;
- measuring the acceleration of the wind turbine blade with the accelerometer during said rotating;
- using the measured acceleration and establishing an inertial reference with the measured acceleration;
- using the inertial reference and the function to predict the deflection of the wind turbine blade;
- and
- controlling the wind turbine blade with the actuator by the controller using the predicted deflection.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.