Icing Monitoring of Wind Turbine Blade Based on Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors and Strain Ratio Index

Yadi Tian, Zhaohui Zhang, Xiaojing Wang, Wanheng Li and Yang Xu ()
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Yadi Tian: Research Institute of Highway Ministry of Transport, Beijing 100088, China
Zhaohui Zhang: CCCC Highway Consultants Co., Ltd., Beijing 100010, China
Xiaojing Wang: China-Road Transportation Verification & Inspection Hi-Tech Co., Ltd., Beijing 100088, China
Wanheng Li: Research Institute of Highway Ministry of Transport, Beijing 100088, China
Yang Xu: School of Civil Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 16, 1-24

Abstract: In cold regions, the power generation efficiency of wind turbines is affected by blade icing. Heavy icing on blades will change the aerodynamic configuration of the blades and can even cause blades to crack or break. Therefore, monitoring and deicing technologies are important for the safe operation of wind turbines. This study proposes a novel strain ratio index based on mechanical analysis of icing, which causes the neutral axis shift and different strain ratio change between waving and shimmy directions. Data from the 5 kW wind turbine blade model in a low-temperature laboratory and the 1.5 MW full-scale field wind turbine monitoring over 1 year are used to validate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The proposed strain ratio index and icing detection criteria are derived from mechanical analysis with clear interpretability while reducing ambiguity from structural damage. The relationship between the strain ratio index and ice thickness is quantified through laboratory tests and validated by field applications, demonstrating the effectiveness and robustness under complex real-world service scenarios.

Keywords: wind turbine blade; ice monitoring; strain ratio index; fiber Bragg grating sensors; structural health monitoring (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: 2025
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