ABSTRACT
Wind turbines are designed for a lifetime of 20 years in Europe. A typical design of a wind turbine shows only little considerations for differences in location (flat, complex terrain), wind fields (rotating wind, upwind) or accessibility of the structure. Moreover, wind turbines are typically equipped with only a few (SCADA) sensors that are used to control the turbine and to record electrical and meteorological data. This makes it difficult to set up an efficient maintenance strategy to optimize maintenance intervals including the replacement of malfunctioning parts. Other issues that need to be addressed are the durability of the components, the cost of electricity, and the overall lifetime. The paper will present studies where a cost-efficient combination of wireless, wired and other sensing techniques was used to obtain critical data at carefully selected points of the tower of hybrid wind turbines out of pre-stressed concrete and steel. The data can be used to update material models in the frame of a digital twin of the turbine to optimize maintenance and operational parameters and to increase the sustainable use of the turbine.
