Thermographic inspection of a wind turbine rotor blade segment utilizing natural conditions as excitation source, Part I: Solar excitation for detecting deep structures in GFRP

This study evaluates whether subsurface features in rotor blades, mainly made of Glass Fibre Reinforced Plastics (GFRP), can generally be detected with “solar thermography”. First, the suitability of the sun is tested for acting as a heat source for applying active thermography on a 30 mm thick GFRP test specimen. Second, a defective rotor blade segment is inspected outdoors under ideal natural conditions using the sun as excitation source. Additionally, numerical FEM-simulations are performed and the comparability between experiment and simulation is evaluated for outdoor measurements.