Wireless Inertial Measurements on Wind Turbine Rotor Blades

In this paper we present measurements conducted on a 3.4 MW wind turbine with a wireless Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), which enables triple axis measurements of angular rate and acceleration. The measurement system is designed to be operates with low latency, a sample rate of 100 Hz and low power consumption. During the field test datasets at the root of the rotor blade as well as in the middle of the rotor blade were collected. Furthermore with the obtained datasets the kinematics of the rotor and rotor blade during the field test were estimated with model based filter structures. Overall, the position and speed of the rotor, the blade pitch angle, and the parallel as well as perpendicular deflection of the rotor blade with respect to the rotor plane were derived.