Vibration-based Structural Health Assessment of a Wind Turbine Tower Using a Wind Turbine Model

Wind turbine towers play an important role in supporting the energy-generating components such as blades, hubs, and nacelles and in resisting wind loads generated by the blades. Therefore, it is essential to secure the structural safety and stability of wind turbine towers, which may be damaged by unforeseen strong winds, through structural health monitoring. In this study, the dynamic characteristics of a wind turbine tower model with and without damage at various locations were investigated though indoor experiments for the purpose of damage assessment and structural health monitoring. These results were compared with those obtained using a finite element model. To propose an appropriate damage detection technique for a wind turbine tower, frequency-based damage detection techniques were applied, and the results were verified by using the numerical model of a 3 MW wind turbine tower operating in Jeju Island, Korea.