Renewable Energy 35 (2010) 14141418

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Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

Review

Status and problems of wind turbine structural health monitoring techniques

in China
Wenyi Liu*, Baoping Tang, Yonghua Jiang
The State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmission, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400030, China

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 24 June 2009
Received in revised form
31 December 2009
Accepted 6 January 2010

Wind energy is an important renewable energy source because of its reliability due to the maturity of the
technology, good infrastructure and relative cost competitiveness. Rich wind resources and strong
support in regulations by the Chinese government have enabled the wind power industry to grow at
a fast speed and the primary market scale has been achieved, making it the second largest wind power
market in the world. There has also been an increase in wind energy research in various regions in China
during the last few years. As utility-size wind turbines increase in size, and correspondingly their initial
capital investment cost, there is an increasing need to monitor the health of these structures. However,
most of the research papers in China are about the manufacture and production, such as the simulation
of the wind turbine generator system model, the systematic resonance and stability for the world
turbine, the wind speed, wind power and pitch adjustment simulation model, and so on. Few papers
focus on the structural health monitoring (SHM) techniques of the wind turbine. In this paper, we review
the status of the current SHM techniques in wind turbine and analyze the problems of them in China. The
aims of this paper are to let more scholars and experts know the status of the current SHM techniques
and to do something for building a successful industry in China.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Wind turbine
Structural health monitoring (SHM)
Renewable energy
Status
Problem

1. Introduction
Renewable energy sources have gained much attention due to
the recent energy crisis and the urge to get clean energy. Among the
main options being studied, wind energy is a strong contender
because of its reliability due to the maturity of the technology, good
infrastructure and relative cost competitiveness. Development of
a wind electricity conversion system not only save the routine
energy resources, but also is one of the effective ways of improving
the makeup of the energy resources and decreasing pollution of the
environment.
In 2008, among the installed worlds new electricity generating
equipment, the total value of wind turbines was more than 400
billion dollars. Worldwide capacity reaches 121,188 MW, out of
which 27,261 MW were added. Wind energy continued its growth
at an increased rate of 29%, higher than the average growth rate in
the past ten years. By the end of 2008, the total installed capacity
of wind energy equipment reached 120.8 GW. The additional

* Corresponding author. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mechanical

Engineering College, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400030, China. Tel.: 86
13038309770.
E-mail address: liuwenyi1984@yahoo.com.cn (W. Liu).
0960-1481/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.renene.2010.01.006

installed capacity in 2008 was more than 27 GW, 36% year-on-year

growth. For the rst time in more than a decade, the USA took
over the number one position from Germany in terms of total
installations. China continued its role as the most dynamic wind
market in the year 2008, more than doubling the installations for
the third time in a row, as of today more than 12 GW of wind
turbines installed [1]. In 2008, an additional installed capacity
6.3 GW of wind power were installed in China, bringing the total
installed capacity to 12.2 GW [2].
Hence more and more researchers in China put their research
focus on wind turbine industry, and many papers were put
forwards recent years. Their research was mainly on the technology
of wind resources measuring and evaluating, the wind turbines
running characteristics, the simulation of the wind turbine generator system model, the systematic resonance and stability for the
wind turbine, the wind speed, wind power and pitch adjustment
simulation model, and so on. However, in the health monitoring
area, most researchers in China put their focus on the vibration
detecting monitoring, therefore the structural health monitoring
(SHM) techniques level was relatively lower than that in other
countries. The high failure rata inuenced the productivity of the
wind turbine energy. Therefore, it can be said that, the research and
application of the SHM techniques in China has not yet matured,
especially in the vibration monitoring on the wind turbine tower

W. Liu et al. / Renewable Energy 35 (2010) 14141418

and the engine room. Hence, it is necessary to study the current

development status of SHM techniques in China. This paper
reviews the status of the wind turbine SHM techniques in China
and analyses of the existing problems.
2. Wind energy status in China
The wind energy resources are determined by the wind energy
density and the available annual accumulative hours of the wind.
The wind energy density refers to the wind power retainable at unit
area, in direct proportion to the relationship between the cubic
wind speed and the air density. And at the same time, the wind
energy resources are greatly affected by the terrain.
2.1. Wind energy in China
In the southeastern coastal areas and nearby islands in China,
the wind energy density can reach 300 W/m2 and the annual
accumulative wind at speed of 320 m/s can exceed 6000 h. The
best inland wind energy resources lie along Inner Mongolia and
Xinjiang, where the wind energy density is between 200 and
300 W/m2 and the annual accumulative wind at speed of 320 m/s
exceed 50006000 h [3].
Table 1 shows the top 5 countries of total wind energy capacity
and Table 2 shows the top 5 new installed capacity in the year 2008.
The USA and China took the lead in the table, in which USA taking
over the global number one position from Germany and China
getting ahead of India for the rst time, taking the lead in Asia. The
USA and China accounted for 50.8% of the wind turbine sales in
2008 and the 8 leading markets represented almost 80% of the
market for new wind turbines one year ago, still only 5 markets
represented 80% of the global sales.
In China, the national average wind energy density is 100 W/m2;
the total reserves of the wind power resources are 3.226 billion KW,
253 million KW wind power reserves on the land, and 750 million
KW wind power reserves on the inshore can be developed or made
useful, which totals about 1 billion KW. If calculating by the 2000 h
at full capacity, the land-based wind power grids can provide 500
billion KW per hour annually. If calculating by the 2500 h at full
capacity, the onshore wind power grids can provide 1.8 trillion KW
per hour annually, moving the total to 2.3 trillion KWh. China, rich
in the wind power resources and huge development potential, will
become an important part of the energy structures in the future.
By the end of 2008, China had 11.6 thousand of the wind power
units, 12.153 million KW of the installed capacity which were
distributed in 24 provinces or municipalities. The installed capacity
in Chongqing, Jiangxi and Yunnan were more over the previous year,
in which the installed capacity exceeded the 1 million KW, including
Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Hebei and Jilin. Compared with the
installed capacity of 5.906 million in the end of 2007, the accumulative growth rate of the installed capacity was 106% in 2008. The
electricity volumes of the grids will be 12 billion KW in 2009 in
China, accounting for 0.04% of the total electric power production.
The wind power farms in China mainly concentrate in the north and

Table 1
Top 5 countries of total capacity, 2008 (MW).

USA
Germany
Spain
China
India

Total capacity (MW)

Percentage %

25170
23903
16740
12210
9597

20.8
19.8
13.9
10.1
8

Source: World Wind Energy Report 2008.

1415

Table 2
Top 5 new installed capacity, 2008 (MW).

USA
China
Germany
Spain
Italy

Capacity (MW)

Percentage %

8351
6298
1656
1595
1281

30.7
23.1
6.1
5.9
3.7

Source: World Wind Energy Report 2008.

southeastern coastal areas and few in the west regions, which are
abundant in the wind power resources. These areas, with the more
inconvenient power transmission, are in remote mountainous areas
and away from the power plants. But on other hand, there have large
development potential for the wind power market. Rich wind
resources and strong support in regulations by the Chinese
government have enabled the Chinese wind power industry to grow
at a fast speed and the primary market scale has been achieved,
making it the second largest wind power market in the world.
2.2. Manufacturers
With the rapid growth of Chinese wind power industry, there
has also been an increase in wind energy research in various
regions in China during the past few years. At present, three local
large electricity generating manufacturers have entered the wind
power equipment industry and major foreign wind power unit
manufacturers have also set up their factories in China. Due to the
fast development of Chinese wind power industry and the rapid
growth in the wind power set manufacture, many other enterprises
are willing to enter the wind power manufacture on basis of its
promising perspectives. However, there are high technical and
policy barriers in Chinese wind power set manufacture. At present,
the investment subjects in Chinese wind power farms major in the
state owned large electricity groups, however, they are in diversity
and many of them have low sustainable developing ability. Owning
to the wind power sets accounting for 70% of the total investments,
the investors are very sensitive to the prices of the wind power sets.
As manufacturing develops, it will gradually cover the entire supply
chain. At present, Chinese enterprises will not only meet the
domestic demand, but also begin to supply the international
market, especially in terms of parts.
Meanwhile there are difculties and problems yet to be overcome by the Chinese wind power industry, such as the bottleneck
of technologies and management and the balance between fast
growth and the sustainable growth. Therefore China needs to
communicate with the world. Chinas wind power is committed to
build up a platform of international exchange and cooperate with
all the industry participants to facilitate the development of the
wind power industry.
The investigation keystone of the wind turbine manufacturer is
in the manufacture and production, but the monitoring to the
structural healthy is comparatively poor. As the wind turbines
increase in size, and correspondingly their initial capital investment cost, there is an increasing need to monitor the health of
these structures. Acquiring an early indication of structural or
mechanical problems allows operators to better plan for maintenance, possibly operate the machine in a de-rated condition rather
than take the turbine off line, or in the case of an emergency, shut
the machine down to avoid further damage.
2.3. Monitoring objects
An overview of the main components to be monitored and some
possible faults are shown in Table 3. Faults like imbalance, wear,

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W. Liu et al. / Renewable Energy 35 (2010) 14141418

fatigue and impending cracks in rotor blades, bearings, shafts,

gearbox, generator, yaw and the pitch angle mechanism are in the
scope of the fault detection system development.

and over-voltage damage to controllers and electronic components,

as well as damage to transformers and wiring are found.
3. Current wind turbine SHM techniques in China

2.3.1. Turbine blades

Wind turbine blades are mostly made of berglass material, but
they can be damaged by moisture absorption, fatigue, wind gusts or
lightening strikes. The blade damage is the most expensive type of
damage to repair and also has the greatest repair time. Furthermore,
rotating mass unbalance due to minor blade damage can cause
serious secondary damage to the whole wind turbine system if
prompt repair action is not taken and this can result in the collapse of
the whole tower. It is important to detect the damage before the blade
fails catastrophically which could destroy the entire wind turbine.
2.3.2. Tower and foundation
For wind turbine towers, wind load is regarded as the main load.
The analysis of damage in most towers indicates that it often occurs
under a wind of medium intensity, and the reason is mainly fatigue
failures. During the design of the structure, the number of sections
which are dangerous from the point of view of fatigue can be
determined.
2.3.3. Bearings
When the turbine turns to face the wind, the rotating blades act
like a gyroscope. As it pivots, gyroscopic precession tries to twist
the turbine into a forward or backward somersault. For each blade
on a wind generators turbine, precessive force is at a minimum
when the blade is horizontal and at a maximum when the blade is
vertical. This cyclic twisting can quickly fatigue and crack the blade
roots, hub and axle of the turbine. Spalling of rotor shaft bearings
can result in cracked rings, and in some cases, revolution of the
inner rings around the shaft causes cracks in the shaft that can
result in a total loss of the turbine.
The raceways of the roller bearings of the low-speed shaft can
develop spalling over the entire circumference of the raceway, and
excessively high temperatures can damage the bearings of the
high-speed shaft. Raceway damage can negatively affect the
transmission of forces to gears.
Generator bearing slippage and wear can ultimately cause inner
rings to rotate around the shaft to the point that rotor makes metalto-metal contact.
2.3.4. Gears
Gears in the gearbox are the main transmission parts in the wind
turbines, which can also easily be destroyed for the wind load is
unbalanced and time-varying. Frequently, scufng along the line of
action as well as unsatisfactory tooth contact patterns are encountered. Highly loaded conditions result in chipping or micro-pitting.
2.3.5. Electrical components
Flaws in the electrical system can also result in the outage of
a wind turbine. Often damaged generator windings, short-circuit

An SHM system is being considered to detect minor damage

sites before they can combine and propagate to cause failure of the
wind turbines. For example, the blade surface buckling at the
maximum chord section is one type of failure. The blades may
operate for a large number of cycles with little reduction in strength
and elastic properties, and then the fatigue damage develops
quickly to failure. Health monitoring of the rotor blades would
reduce wind turbine life-cycle costs and the cost of energy. The
SHM techniques proposed are to monitor the condition of the
blades during operation or in the eld when the turbine is stopped.
Currently, the research of SHM techniques is mainly in the
laboratory, and some new technologies have been studied. Few
typical techniques related to the wind turbines are discussed here.
3.1. Vibration analysis
Vibration analysis is the most known technology applied for
condition monitoring, especially for rotating equipment. For wind
turbines this type of monitoring is applicable for monitoring the
wheels and bearings of the gearbox, bearings of the generator and
the main bearing. The sensors measure the acceleration at different
places in the turbine. By measuring the acceleration and then
integrating it once or twice, one obtains the velocity and the
displacement. Components that vibrate are a sign of malfunction
and by simply looking at the displacement of the component the
vibration can be measured. Another way of analyzing the data from
the sensors is by looking at frequency spectrums. Vibration and
oscillation data time series are analyzed and evaluated using
spectral analysis algorithms. These algorithms are based on the fast
Fourier transform (FFT) functions, which are common in digital
data evaluation. These spectrums will tell you which vibrations are
caused by the ordinary rotating parts in the wind turbine and also
which vibrations are caused by potential wear or damage on the
turbine, the bearings or the gears.
3.2. Oil analysis
Oil analysis is mostly executed off line, by taking samples, and it
can safeguard the oil quality and the components involved.
However for safeguarding the oil quality, application of on-line
sensors is increasing. Nowadays sensors are available at an
acceptable price level for part counting and moist. Besides this,
safeguarding the state of the oil lter is now mostly applied for
hydraulic as well as for lubrication oil. Characterization of parts is
often only performed in case of abnormalities. In case of excessive
lter pollution, oil contamination or change in component characteristic, characterization of parts can give an indication of
components with excessive wear.

Table 3
Possible wind turbine damage.
Assembly

Possible defects

Rotor blade

Surface damage, cracks, structural discontinuities

Damage to the lightning protection system
Leakages, corrosion
Corrosion, cracks
Leakages, corrosion
Corrosion, cracks
Damage, wear
Terminals, fastenings, function, corrosion, dirt

Drive train
Nacelle and force-and moment-transmitting components
Hydraulic system, pneumatic system
Tower and foundation
Safety devices, sensors and braking systems
Control system and electrics including transformer station and swichgear

W. Liu et al. / Renewable Energy 35 (2010) 14141418

1417

3.3. Strain measurements

4. Suggestions

Strain measurement by strain gauges is a common technique,

however not often applied for condition monitoring. Strain gauges
have a short lifetime. For wind turbines, strain measurement can be
very useful for lifetime prediction and safeguarding of the stress
level, especially for the blades. More advanced sensors might open
an interesting application area. Optical ber sensors are promising,
however still too expensive and not yet applied in wide range.
Availability of cost effective systems, based on ber optics, can be
expected within some years. Strain measurement as condition
monitoring input will then be more important.

In China, there are more than 70 complete wind power set

manufacturers, more than 50 blade manufacturers and near 100
tower tube manufacturers. The yield capacity has been far beyond
the market capacity if calculating by the yield capacity of the
companies. In China, the wind power equipment manufacture is
just on their rst step, the development of the industrial chains has
not yet been perfected and the complete wind power set manufacture is seriously restrained from the bottleneck in the crucial
accessories. The localization of the major accessories of the wind
power generating sets below MW-class has been a reality, which
can be supplied in bulk. However, there are still large gaps in the
corn accessories of the wind power generating sets above MWclass. Also the quality of the accessories produced in the local
enterprises is not very reliable.
In order to cope with the inuences of international nancial
crisis, the Chinese government has fastened the development of the
wind power as one of the crucial economic growth points. It is
predicted that the newly added installed capacity of the wind
power in China will be doubled in 2009. According to the current
pace of development, Chinas total installed capacity in 2010 will be
the second largest in the world, realizing the original plan of
achieving the goal of 30 GW in 2020 a decade ahead of schedule.
Chinas growing wind power market has also stimulated the
domestic wind turbine and components production. On that
occasion, the new added installed capacity of the wind power in
China will take an important part for one third or even more of the
worlds new added installed capacity of the wind power.
Many damage detection, condition and SHM devices, techniques
and algorithms exist for a whole host of structures outside. So it is
necessary to put the research focus on the new techniques and new
algorithms. Some typical ones are discussed here.

3.4. Electrical effects

For accumulators the impedance can be measured to establish
the condition and capacity. For medium and high voltage grids,
a number of techniques are available: discharge measurements,
velocity measurements for switches, contact force measurements
for switches, and oil analysis for transformers. The reduction of
operational and maintenance costs is continuously required of
modern wind generators. In particular, with plans for extending
wind farms at sea, it is required to increase reliability and
production time, simultaneously with an increase of service
interval. An important factor enabling this is to provide wind
generators with advanced condition monitoring systems, by which
the generator is monitored during operation to avoid undesirable
operating conditions and to detect incipient faults in the
components.
3.5. Visual inspection
Relatively advanced SHM techniques have been used to examine
rotor blades. The methods employed include penetrant testing and
visual inspection with the use of miniature cameras or endoscopes.
At present, it appears that mechanical components are not tested at
the time to manufacture but the cause of their damage can be
determined. For example, endoscopes are used for the visual
inspection of planetary gear transmissions. However, damaged
components are usually examined in the laboratory.
3.6. Tap test
The tap test can be used to verify some of the results from the
ultrasonic test and it is also a good method to discover irregularities
in the structure. The method is based on the fact that the sound
emitted when knocking on the structure changes when the thickness or material type changes or when porosities are present. It
could also be caused when there is a disbond between the skin
laminate and the main spar. There are three types of tap testing
equipment: a manual tapping hammer, the Woodpecker portable
bondtester and the Computer Aided Tap Tester (CATT) system. All
the automated tap methods have the advantage that they can
produce a print of the damaged area, which is a permanent record
of the damage found. All the tapping methods work well for thin
laminates, honeycomb structures and other sandwich panels but
are not as effective on thicker parts.
3.7. Physical conditions of materials
This type of monitoring is mainly focused on crack detection and
growth. Methods are normally off line and not suitable for on-line
condition monitoring of wind turbines. An exception might be the
usage of optical fuses in the blades and acoustic monitoring of
structures.

4.1. Infrared thermography [4]

Thermal imaging method is a subsurface defects or anomalies
detection method owing to temperature differences observed on
the investigated surface, such as in the wind turbine blade, during
monitoring by using infrared sensors or cameras. Thermography is
often applied for monitoring and failure identication of electronic
and electric components, because the adhesive joints are critical
points in the blade structure. The temperature difference when
compared to the sound part is related to the difference of thermal
diffusivity and this indicates material irregularity or damage. The
infrared scanner is able to see through the laminate and check the
adhesive joint. It records temperature differences in the adhesive,
possibly identifying aws, and takes a series of pictures. If there are
any doubts a point can be highlighted and later analyzed using
electronic image processing. If aws are found, they can almost
always be repaired immediately.
More investigations are needed for the application of this
method to in-service wind turbines due to its sensitivity to spatial
and temporal temperature variations. This damage detection
technique can be a local technique or a global technique because it
is possible to assess the damage from a single or full-eld
measurement, depending on the resolution of the camera. It has the
potential to be a promising in-service wind turbine SHM in the
future if the excitation method can be simplied.
4.2. Acoustic monitoring
Acoustic monitoring has a strong relationship with vibration
monitoring, however, there is a principle difference. While vibration sensors are rigid mounted on the component involved, and

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W. Liu et al. / Renewable Energy 35 (2010) 14141418

register the local motion, the acoustic sensors can listen to the
component. They are attached to the component by exible glue
with low attenuation. These sensors are successfully applied for
monitoring bearing and gearboxes.
4.3. Acoustic emission (AE) [5]
AE testing procedures, developed during a laboratory blade
testing programme, have been applied to an in-service wind
turbine blade. Processes such as cracking, deformation, debonding,
delamination, impacts, crushing, and others, all produce localized
transient changes in stored elastic energy with a broad spectral
content. AE monitoring during loading of wind turbine blades has
offered considerable advantages towards the understanding of the
complex damage mechanisms which occur on a turbine blade, and
have enhanced the testers ability to evaluate damage.
4.4. Ultrasonic non-destructive testing [6]
Ultrasound is a well-established method for investigating the
inner structures of solid objects. Ultrasonic scanning is also very
useful for investigating composite structures. The basic principle of
the technique is that an ultrasonic wave is passed through the
material and is then reected or mode converted by a defect. An
ultrasonic test can be carried out to investigate if any damage is
present in the wind turbine blade. Ultrasonic inspection reveals
these aws quickly, reliably and effectively. They are also the most
often used non-destructive composite inspection method in
industry. The main advantage of ultrasound scanning is that it
enables us to see beneath the surface and check the laminate for
dry glass ber and delamination.
A transmitter transfers ultrasound waves into the material and
the signal from this is picked up by a receiver once it has passed
through the material. In the simplest arrangement, the transmitter
and receiver are placed on opposite surfaces of the material. The
technique may also be applied with a single transmitter/receiver
transducer in a pulse-echo mode or with separate transmitter and
receiver transducers placed on the same side of the material.
4.5. Mobile condition monitoring
Experienced condition monitoring engineers are aware that the
load on gears with planetary stages, helical gearing, and tooth
corrections has a signicant inuence on vibration characteristics.
When testing gear loads, the rule generally applies that measurements should occur at a minimum of 20% of rated torque and at the
rated rotational speed. Nowadays in the wind energy sector, the
techniques are mature for leading gear manufacturers to test wind
turbine gearing at the rated torque or to measure and record
parameters such as the frequency spectra of the vibration velocity
during test runs. Such constant load conditions, over extended
periods only exist for wind turbines in exposed mountainous
regions or offshore. In the case of onshore wind turbines, the mean
wind force changes more or less hourly and the gear loads are
additionally inuenced by wind gusts.
4.6. On-line condition monitoring
Fixed-speed stall-controlled turbines and medium-sized wind
turbines often use multi-pole generators that rotate at

approximately 1005 rpm at wind speeds up to 6 m/s and then

switch to a higher speed of around 1505 rpm at greater wind
speeds. In this way the wind turbine can be operated close to
maximum capacity at both low and high wind speeds.
These techniques cannot only be applied to monitor the whole
wind turbine system, but also be used in all portions of the wind
turbine. Hence, employing them singularly or combining them
together can give a good basis to rst understand the behavior of
the faults and then develop the appropriate algorithm for monitoring of wind turbines as a whole.

5. Conclusion
Rich wind resources and strong support in regulations by the
Chinese government have enabled the Chinese wind power
industry to grow at a fast speed, making it the second largest wind
power market in the world. As the wind turbines size increase and
their initial capital investment cost rise, there is an increasing need
to monitor the health of these structures. But in China, focus of the
research papers is mainly on the manufacture and production of
the wind turbines.
This paper discusses the current SHM techniques in China, such
as vibration analysis, the oil analysis, strain measurements, electrical effects, visual inspection, tap test, and so on. However, these
techniques are mainly studied in the laboratory and have not been
widely used. Then some suggestions have been given, such as to put
the research focus on the relative new techniques and new algorithms and to increase the government investment management.
Some typical new techniques and new algorithms about SHM in
wind turbines have been introduced in the advice part of this paper,
such as infrared thermography method, acoustic monitoring
method, ultrasonic non-destructive testing method, and so on.
Future works include investigating in detail the further techniques on the basis of which novel and innovative SHM system
could be built.

Acknowledgement
This project is supported by National high-tech research and
development projects of China (863) (Grant No. 2009AA04Z411),
National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50875272,
No. 50735008) and Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (Grant No. 0763).

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[5] Kirikera GR, Shinde V, Schulz MJ, Ghoshal A, Sundaresan M, Allemang R.
Damage localisation in composite and metallic structures using a structural
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