Wind Turbine Shearography Robotic Inspection On-blade System (SheaRIOS)
Acronym: SheaRIOS
Funding body: European Commission
Status: Project
Wind energy is a fast growing sector which see an average growth since 2001 over 10% pa. Global investment in 2016 is €268bn (EU: €43bn), with new installed capacity at 54GW (EU: 12.5GW). There are over 300,000 wind turbines spinning around the world now.
In order to maximise the revenue arising from the wind energy assets, the WTBs need regular inspection and maintenance. However, most existing NDT techniques are not suitable for WTB inspection on-site. For example, ultrasonic technique needs proper coupling and works only for homogeneous materials. Shearography has been widely used industry for composite materials inspections, but these application are restricted to on-the-ground where the objects to be inspected are under stable conditions.
The SheaRIOS project aims to provide a solution for WTB inspection on wind towers by integrating shearography with robotics. A deployment platform will ascend along the wind turbine tower, meanwhile it will deploy a compact climbing robot carrying a shearography kit to roam across the WTB surface to conduct inspection. The deployment platform will also act as the power and data link, while whole the system will be safely controlled by the ground (for on-shore wind farm) or on a vessel (for off-shore wind farm).