14:30 - 16:00 Droning On! The use of UAVs in wind turbine O&M
O&M & logistics
![Onshore Onshore](onshore-neg.png)
![Offshore Offshore](offshore-neg.png)
Room: Hall F
This session will give an overview of the emerging technology of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), otherwise called drones, and their application to the remote inspection of wind turbines, with an emphasis on the assessment of blade damage. It will look at what has been done to date and what the capabilities may be for the future. Finally, it will consider the advantages and disadvantages of different inspection techniques.
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Learning objectives
- List the ways in which wind turbine blade damage can be assessed using drones;
- Identify the potential advantages of drones over other approaches to turbine assessment;
- Anticipate future developments in drone technology and associated instruments.
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Presenter
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Co-authors:
Andrew Bellamy (1) F Simon Haag (2)
(1) Aarufield Limited, London , United Kingdom (2) 8.2 Consulting AG, Hamburg, Germany
Presenter's biography
Biographies are supplied directly by presenters at WindEurope Summit 2016 and are published here uneditedMr. Bellamy has been working in the wind industry for over 15 years. He co-founded Aarufield to focus his efforts on providing technical capabilities to the renewables sector. As Director he is especially using his international experience in development of supply chain and manufacturing of rotor blades.
He has led international development of some of the largest wind OEM’s, taking new manufacturing operations to countries such as Canada, Portugal and India. He has been a lead member of global manufacturing and supply operations for multiple OEM/Tier1 operators in the wind industry.
Andrew has worked extensively overseas, including the USA, Germany, India and China.
Abstract
Best practice: How to inspect rotor blades offshore and reduce your overall O&M expenses
Introduction
Rotor blades are one of the components in offshore turbines where growth has been most significant. Physical blade proportions have grown at an incredible rate, as the race to increase turbine yield and performance continues. However, rotor blades also remain one of the most variable components of a modern turbine system, due to their size and required manufacturing processes to achieve acceptable factory output.
Approach
Whilst manufacturers of blades have continuously improved design and manufacturing to deliver the required quality, the industry has seen common cases of blades in operation which have failed or developed serial defects requiring retrofit or replacement. This presentation will outline best practice examples verifying the multiple options for visual inspection of rotor blades from an independent expert view.
Main body of abstract
One of the complexities of offshore projects is to perform suitable inspections and checks to confirm the integrity of a rotor blade fleet. There are multiple solutions for performing inspections, typically involving technicians visiting each blade and performing a visual inspection via rope access. This has proven to be extremely time consuming and expensive, especially where large wind parks require inspections ahead of maintenance campaigns. It is critical to have sufficient data to ensure the blade fleet is known, but without causing high down-time on the turbines and incurring enormous cost from physically accessing each turbine.
In order to reduce downtimes and operational costs, first practical experience with the use of helicopters and drones has been gained. It is clear that from the multiple options available for visual inspection of rotor blades, some technologies are suited to projects more than others – typically dependent on vessel availability, access, distance to shore and weather conditions.
Conclusion
A study has been carried out, where each format of blade inspection has been reviewed and compared, on the basis of quality, cost and related downtime in the windfarm.
Learning objectives
Using these results, it is possible to develop a “best-fit” of blade inspection technologies for windparks around European offshore waters, using a cost model to provide the most effective solution for each project.
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