Condition monitoring and life extension of components is vital to reducing risk of
failure and operational costs in the power industry. Optical strain measurement
techniques have been studied and developed for use in condition monitoring of
power plant steam pipes and wind turbine components. In addition, these techniques
have been used to assist evaluation of damage mechanisms in these components.
Power plant steam pipes operate at high temperature (approximately 600°C) and
pressure, and as a result undergo large creep deformations. Monitoring creep strain
is a key factor in assessing remaining life of important components. An optical strain
measurement system developed by EON, Automatic Reference Creep Measurement
And Control (ARCMAC) has been researched as to its combined effectiveness with
Digital Image Correlation (DIC) in obtaining accurate and reliable strain measurement
for high temperature components.
DIC has also been used to monitor and evaluate damage in composite wind turbine
blade components. The use of this optical strain technique has allowed comparison
of experimentally-derived full-field strain maps to be compared with finite element
analysis (FEA) results. Additionally, the use of acoustic emission (AE) as a condition
monitoring technique for wind turbine blades has been investigated. Use of these
techniques has given greater understanding of failure mechanisms in wind turbine
components; in particular, transverse tensile damage and delamination have been
investigated. The influence of the Brazier effect upon wind turbine blade failure has
also been researched.
Results of this research have evaluated accuracy of using optical strain
measurement techniques as well as their ability to effectively measure strain in
particular regions of interest. The application of such techniques is an important
requirement for both power plant and wind turbine components. Finally, studies into
the use of optical strain measurement techniques as lab-based tools to study failure
mechanisms have been performed.