General Electric Company
System and method for mitigating damage in a rotor blade of a wind turbine

Abstract:

A method for mitigating damage in a rotor blade of a plurality of rotor blades of a wind turbine includes receiving a plurality of acceleration signals from the plurality of the rotor blades in at least one direction. The method also includes generating a spectral density for each of the plurality of acceleration signals. Further, the method includes determining blade energies for each of the plurality of rotor blades based on the spectral densities for each of the plurality of acceleration signals for at least one predetermined frequency range. Moreover, the method includes comparing the blade energies to at least one of each other or a predetermined damage threshold. In addition, the method includes implementing a control action when one or more of the blade energies vary from each other by a predetermined amount or one or more of the blade energies exceed the predetermined damage threshold.