Webinars
03 February 2021
TWI and the SheaRIOS consortium are holding a free-to-attend virtual event titled ‘SheaRIOS – In-Situ Wind Turbine Blade Inspection’ on 3 February 2021.
Abstract
The SheaRIOS project is developing a robotic on-blade inspection solution that uses shearography to assess the condition of wind turbine blades (WTBs) with improved efficiency and safety as well as reduced costs.
WTBs are subject to significant and unpredictable stresses from the environment, consequently inspections are a critical safety activity. This has led to strict maintenance and inspection regulations. However, despite such regular inspection and maintenance requirements, the majority of blade failures are as a result of poor maintenance. More effective inspection and preventative maintenance regimes are needed to reduce these costly failures.
Manual inspections, often performed by rope access inspectors, have resulted in accidents causing injury or death. As the number of wind turbines increase, so does the likelihood of further accidents.
Techniques such as visual thermography, acoustic emission and ultrasonic testing have been investigated for WTB inspection, but none have been found to be totally satisfactory. Shearographic inspection of large composite structures, such as aircraft wings, has been successfully used in the aerospace sector signalling its applicability to WTBs.
This free-to-attend event will provide a valuable insight into the bespoke shearographic inspection system being developed by the SheaRIOS consortium.
Who should attend?
- Wind turbine owners
- Wind turbine operators
- Third party maintenance providers
- Inspection engineers
Download the latest programme here
Speakers
Andy Morris
Fleet Chief Mechanical Engineer
EDF Energy
Andy is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and his career extends over 35 years with experience on plant life assessment and extension, failure investigations, supporting generating sites and undertaking research in the power industry. He is a visiting professor in the mechanical engineering department at Imperial College London and has been actively researching plant life assessment and condition monitoring methods for many years with UK universities and external research organisations. Andy has worked in both technical and managerial positions in the power industry, for many years as an external engineering consultant and currently for the plant operator as chief mechanical engineer for EDF Energy; coal, gas and renewables business.
James Kern
Senior Project Leader
TWI
James graduated from Sheffield University with a B.Eng and PhD in 1992. He worked as a metallurgist at Sandberg Consultant Engineers, as a senior technologist at Rolls Royce and as chief materials scientist at APPH (now Heroux Devtek), before joining TWI in 2014. He first specialised in hot forming and bonding processes before transferring to the NDT group.
He has successfully led numerous collaborative (Horizon 2020 and Innovate UK) and single client projects, leading research activities and developing manufacturing prototypes. Current areas of interest include radiation effects on materials and sensors, geothermal energy, ATEX, manufactured defects for calibration purposes and shearography.
Martin Bourton
Principal Project Leader
TWI
Following graduation from the University of East Anglia in 1987, Martin joined TWI as a project leader developing hardware and software solutions. Since 2014, he has managed a series of technology transfer programmes and collaborative research projects related to welding engineering and structural integrity.
Makis Pachos
Technical Manager
IKH
Following graduation from the National Technical University of Athens, Makis pursued a career in robotics automation and later in aerospace quality. Since 2018, he has managed a series of commercial and collaborative research projects related to robots for wind turbine inspection, heat exchanger cleaning and non-destructive testing.
Deniz Petrecca
Project Engineer
DEKRA Visatec GmbH
Following graduation from the University of Applied Sciences Kempten in 2014, Deniz joined DEKRA Visatec as a mechanical designer. Subsequently, he completed a Master's degree in technical management and IPMA project management training. Since April 2019, he has been working as a project engineer and is head of development and customer projects at Dekra Visatec.