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Wind blades are major structural elements of wind turbines, but they are prone to damage like any other composite component. Blade damage can cause sudden structural failure and the associated costs to repair them are high. Therefore, it is important to identify the causation of damage to prevent defects during the manufacturing phase, transportation, and in operation. Generally, damage in wind blades can arise due to manufacturing defects, precipitation and debris, water ingress, variable loading due to wind, operational errors, lightning strikes, and fire. Early detection and mitigation techniques are required to avoid or reduce damage in costly wind turbine blades. This article provides an extensive review of viable solutions and approaches for damage mitigation in wind turbine blades.

The triboluminescence phenomenon has been proposed as a sensor system for detecting and monitoring damage in aerospace and civil infrastructure systems (CIS). While significant work is being done in developing such systems for aerospace structures, little or no work is being done in developing triboluminescence-based sensor systems for the critical and aging CIS. This article reports some findings in the work being done by the authors to develop such a sensor system for civil infrastructure applications. A ZnS:Mn-based cementitious patch that emits light when stressed or fractured was developed and its triboluminescence performance under loading characterized. The results show that a ZnS:Mn concentration level of 10% gives the best triboluminescence response without adversely affecting the compressive strength of the patch, while also minimizing the use of the expensive ZnS:Mn crystals. The triboluminescence response increased as the concentration of ZnS:Mn in the system increased. The highest triboluminescence response was obtained at a concentration level of 25% but resulted in significant reduction in the system's compressive strength. Nonetheless, the presence of ZnS:Mn affects the hydration process by slowing down the conversion of the needleshaped crystals of calcium sulfoaluminate hydrate (ettringites) into the monosulfate hydrate that makes concrete vulnerable to sulfate attack.

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Triboluminescent damage sensors comprising highly efficient triboluminescent materials could allow simple, real-time monitoring of both the magnitude and location of damage. The inability to effectively capture and transmit the triboluminescent optical signals generated within opaque composites like concrete has, however, limited their damage monitoring applications. The in situ triboluminescent optical fiber sensor has been developed to enable the detection and transmission of damage-provoked triboluminescent emissions without having to position triboluminescent crystals in the host material. Flexural tests were performed on mortar and reinforced concrete beams having the in situ triboluminescent optical fiber sensor integrated into them. The intrinsic triboluminescent signals generated in the beams under loading were successfully transmitted through the optical fibers to the photomultiplier tube by side coupling. Successful side coupling will make a truly distributed in situ triboluminescent optical fiber sensor possible when the entire length of the sensor is mostly covered with the triboluminescent composite coating. The results show the viability of the in situ triboluminescent optical fiber sensor for the structural health monitoring of cementitious composites. Real-time failure detection was demonstrated in unreinforced mortar beams, while real-time damage (crack) detection was demonstrated in reinforced concrete beams. Preliminary work on reinforced concrete beams showed that the integrated in situ triboluminescent optical fiber sensor was able to detect multiple cracks caused by loading, thereby providing early warning of structural degradation before failure.