Applying step heating thermography to wind turbine rotor blades as a non-destructive testing method

摘要

Structural flaws in wind turbine rotor blades cause serious accidents with personal injuries and damage to property. Hence economic and legislative demands for regular inspections need to be met by wind park operators. Several methods for non-destructive testing exist, but are not applicable due to the large dimensions of wind power plants. As a consequence, those inspections are usually carried out manually by industrial climbers. Contact free on-site testing methods provide a promising outlook for minimizing the required maintenance efforts. The kEFIR research project examines in how far active thermography is an appropriate technique to analyse the inner structural features of rotor blades. The particular focus of this paper lies on the sun as a heat source for step heating thermography.