MIMO-SAR Interferometric Measurements for Wind Turbine Tower Deformation Monitoring

Andreas Baumann-Ouyang (), Jemil Avers Butt, Matej Varga and Andreas Wieser
Additional contact information
Andreas Baumann-Ouyang: Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
Jemil Avers Butt: Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
Matej Varga: Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
Andreas Wieser: Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 3, 1-20

Abstract: Deformations affect the structural integrity of wind turbine towers. The health of such structures is thus assessed by monitoring. The majority of sensors used for this purpose are costly and require in situ installations. We investigated whether Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Synthetic Aperture Radar (MIMO-SAR) sensors can be used to monitor wind turbine towers. We used an automotive-grade, low-cost, off-the-shelf MIMO-SAR sensor operating in the W-band with an acquisition frequency of 100 Hz to derive Line-Of-Sight (LOS) deformation measurements in ranges up to about 175 m . Time series of displacement measurements for areas at different heights of the tower were analyzed and compared to reference measurements acquired by processing video camera recordings and total station measurements. The results showed movements in the range of up to 1 m at the top of the tower. We were able to detect the deformations also with the W-band MIMO-SAR sensor; for areas with sufficient radar backscattering, the results suggest a sub-mm noise level of the radar measurements and agreement with the reference measurements at the mm- to sub-mm level. We further applied Fourier transformation to detect the dominant vibration frequencies and identified values ranging from 0.17 to 24 Hz . The outcomes confirmed the potential of MIMO-SAR sensors for highly precise, cost-efficient, and time-efficient structural monitoring of wind turbine towers. The sensors are likely also applicable for monitoring other high-rise structures such as skyscrapers or chimneys.

Keywords: wind turbine; monitoring; radar; MIMO-SAR; interferometry; total station; camera (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/3/1518/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/3/1518/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:3:p:1518-:d:1056937

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().