Energy Harvesting to Power Sensing Hardware Onboard Wind Turbine Blade

Abstract

Wind turbines are becoming a larger source of renewable energy in the United States. However, most of the designs are geared toward the weather conditions seen in Europe. Also, in the United States, manufacturers have been increasing the length of the turbine blades, often made of composite materials, to maximize power output. As a result of the more severe loading conditions in the United States and the material level flaws in composite structures, blade failure has been a more common occurrence in the U.S. than in Europe. Therefore, it is imperative that a structural health monitoring system be incorporated into the design of the wind turbines in order to monitor flaws before they lead to a catastrophic failure. Due to the rotation of the turbine and issues related to lightning strikes, the best way to implement a structural health monitoring system would be to use a network of wireless sensor nodes. In order to provide power to these sensor nodes, piezoelectric, thermoelectric and photovoltaic energy harvesting techniques are examined on a cross section of a CX-100 wind turbine blade in order to determine the feasibility of powering individual nodes that would compose the sensor network.

Wireless energy transmission to supplement energy harvesters in sensor network applications

“…A more detailed description of the energy harvester, including its analytical model and experimental verification has previously been presented by the authors [18]. Researchers have also worked to develop broadband vibrational energy harvesters [9].…”

“…This study focused primarily on energy harvesting from ambient vibrations using piezoelectric materials. However, researchers have obtained good results by combining independent ambient energy harvesting techniques, utilizing thermoelectric materials exhibiting a high Seebeck coefficient (such as bismuth telluride), as well as conventional photovoltaic solar cells [9].…”

Structural health monitoring of offshore wind turbines: A review through the Statistical Pattern Recognition Paradigm

“…In order to provide enough power to the sensors without using batteries, piezoelectric, thermoelectric and photovoltaic energy harvesting techniques were assessed in [163], on a cross section of a CX-100 WT blade. The aim was to determine the feasibility of powering individual nodes that would compose the sensor network.…”

Hybrid energy sources for embedded sensor nodes

“…This study focuses primarily on energy harvesting from * farinholt@lanl.gov ambient vibrations using piezoelectric materials. However, researchers have obtained good results by combining independent ambient energy harvesting techniques, utilizing thermoelectric materials exhibiting a high Seebeck coefficient (such as bismuth telluride), as well as conventional photovoltaic solar cells [5].…”