Fault diagnosis of a Wind Turbine Rotor using a Multi-blade Coordinate Framework

Fault diagnosis of a wind turbine rotor is considered. The faults considered are sensor faults and blades mounted with a pitch offset. A fault at a single blade will result in asymmetries in the rotor, which can be applied for fault diagnosis. The diagnosis is derived by using the multiblade coordinate (MBC) transformation also known as the Coleman transformation together with active fault diagnosis (AFD). This transforms the setup from rotating to fixed frame coordinates. The rotor speed acts as the auxiliary input for the active diagnosis. The applied method take the varying rotor speed into account. Operation at different mean wind speeds is examined and it is discussed how to exploit the findings acquired by the investigation of the various faults.