Experience with bicoherence of electricial power for
condition monitoring of wind turbine bl~ades
W.Q. Jeffries
J .A.Chambers
D.G.lnfield
Indexing terms: Monitoring, Wind turbines, Bicoherence
Abstract: The authors explore the application of
the normalised bispectrum or bicoherence to the
problem of condition monitoring of wind turbine
blades. Background information is provided on
this type of condition monitoring, how it differs
from more conventional condition monitoring of
turbo machinery, and the motivation for selecting
bicoherence. Bicoherence is defined and
compared with the power spectral density.
Complications in collecting suitable data, and
estimating the bicoherence from that data are
investigated; including the requirements of very
long stationary data sets for consistent estimates,
and computational difficulties in handling such
large data sets. Bicoherence is then applied to
electrical power output data obtained from a
45kW wind turbine. The turbine is operated in
three configurations to represent normal and fault
conditions. A blade with less flapwise stiffness but
identical outer dimensions to the matched set of
blades was fitted to simulate a damaged blade.
Comparison of the results from the power
spectral density and bicoherence indicates how
the bicoherence might be employed for condition
monitoring purposes. Slices of the bicoherence
with one frequency fixed at the rate of rotation
show clear differences between the configurations
and substantially reduce the computational effort
required to calculate the estimate.
1 Introduction
1. I Why condition monitoring of wind
turbine blades is desirable
The number and value of wind turbines in the UK and
worldwide has increased dramatically over the past few
0IEE, 1998
IEE Proceedings online no. 19982013
Paper received 2nd September 1997
W.Q. Jeffries is with the Energy and Electromagnetics Section, Depart-
ment of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College of Science
Technology and Medicine, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2BT, UK
J.A. Chambers is with the Signal Processing Section, Department of Elec-
trial and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College of Science Technology
and Medicine, Exhibition Road, London SW7 2BT, UK
D.G. Infield is with the Centre for Renewable Energy Systems Technol-
ogy, Loughborough University, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE11 3TU,
UK
IEE Proc.-Vis. Image Signal Process., Vol. 145, No. 3, June 1998
years as wind farms have been installed by developers
and accepted by major utilities as a viable method of
electric power generation. By the end of 1995, 180MW
of wind farm capacity h,ad been installed in the UK
with up to 491 MW additional capacity expected,
resulting from the third round of the Non Fossil Fuel
Obligation and the first round of the Scottish Renewa-
bles Order. Wind energy capacity in Europe alone sur-
passed 2000MW in 1996 iind is increasing rapidly [l].
This expansion has resu lted in many ageing turbines,
in addition to increasing numbers of turbines with a
rating of 300kW and above. The probability of failure
due to fatigue and wear increases as the number of
operation cycles increases. Additionally, the probability
of failure due to design or construction flaws is greatest
with relatively new machines, especially very large ones.
Since the wind turbine industry is fairly young with
limited operational experjence, the fatigue life of most
machines is not well defined. Blades are a crucial and
expensive component of a wind turbine. They also are
one of the most likely coimponents to fail [2]. Further-
more, failure of a blade causes significant down time or
even machine loss, as well as negative publicity. With
present large wind turbinles and the highly competitive
electricity generation market, the loss of revenue from
one machine due to a component failure can cause con-
siderable financial stress to a wind farm operator. A
low-cost tool that can predict component failure would
minimise down time and provide the operators with a
better understanding of the ‘health’ of the wind farm.
It could also help wind turbine manufacturers by sup-
plying additional feedback to improve machine design.
Currently, wind turbine manufacturers employ fairly
simple sensors to detect faults in their wind turbines.
These sensors detect the results of failure, i.e. excessive
vibration from blade failure or overspeed from gearbox
failure, and not the condition of components. Although
condition monitoring has, been applied successfully in
several industries (e.g. aerospace, large power genera-
tion and maritime shipping), it has not yet been applied
to wind turbines. This was, until recently, partly due to
the economics dictated b y the relatively small number
of wind generators, and also to the substantial techni-
cal challenges presented by such a project. Larger
machines now allow more scope for sophisticated mon-
itoring, and advances in signal-processing hardware
promise lower costs to implement sophisticated signal
processing.
The blades of a wind turbine are a vital component,
yet the loads that they experience are difficult to
141
predict. As the machine size increases, there have been
problems with blades due to construction faults,
unexpected vibrations and under-predicted loads. To be
most effective in a wind farm, monitoring must be
continuous and automatic. It should detect known
modes of failure reliably without false alarms. A
condition monitoring package should be capable of
being retrofitted onto existing wind turbines without
requiring additional sensors and wiring on the
machine.
1.2 Considerations of condition monitoring
wind turbine blades
A successful blade condition monitoring system must
detect a structural fault in a blade with sufficient warn-
ing to prevent increased damage and the possibility of
catastrophic failure. Therefore, the fault in the blade
must modify some characteristic of the wind turbine
dynamics and this change has to be detected. Ideally,
the chosen characteristic is sensitive to the condition of
the blade structure. Conventional condition monitoring
of bearings, gearboxes and other parts of rotating
machinery typically employs vibration sensors, e.g.
accelerometers, mounted on the part in question. On a
wind turbine, however, monitoring involves mounting
the sensors on a rotating frame and then transmitting
the signal to a stationary remote point for processing.
The electrical power output of the wind turbine, on the
other hand, is accessible from the ground and may
offer more comprehensive information on the state of
the wind turbine.
An assumption in this type of condition monitoring
is that damage in a blade results in a decrease in its
stiffness. Fatigue tests of glass reinforced plastic cou-
pons show a smooth and continuous decline in stiffness
as the test progresses. Generally, stiffness declines
slowly and then drops rapidly just before failure. In
quasi-static tests to failure on full-size wind turbine
blades at the US National Renewable Energy Labora-
tory, stiffness decreased by approximately 10% before
failure. Fatigue effects then became visible, and stiff-
ness dropped quickly as the blade failed [3]. Defects in
construction, such as voids in the resin, improper
seams between halves, improperly cured resin and
defective fasteners, are another possible source of a loss
of stiffness. The effect of a defect on stiffness could
appear immediately on commissioning or emerge as the
inadequate part fatigues in service. The modal proper-
ties (mode shapes and their associated modal frequen-
cies) of a structure, such as a blade, are another way of
describing the physical properties of mass and stiffness
distribution. If the physical properties change, then
modal frequencies, their relative phases or the modal
shape may also be altered.
The coupling from blade vibration to power output
stems from more than one interaction between the
blades and the rest of the wind turbine. The stiffness of
a blade in the flapwise direction (in and out of the
rotor plane) is considerably less than that in the edge-
wise direction (within the rotor plane), and the flapwise
(thrust) loads are greater; therefore, flapwise vibrations
are typically much larger than edgewise vibrations.
Flapwise motion, particularly at the tip where it is
greatest, adds to (or subtracts from) the wind velocity,
changing angle of attack, and thereby affecting lift,
drag and power. This coupling of flapwise blade
motion to power output is strongest in low to moderate
142
winds when the blades are not greatly stalled (assuming
a stall regulated machine), and it weakens as stalling
increases. Analysis of the coherence of flapwise blade
acceleration to electrical power supports this reasoning.
The vibration modes of the rotor also interact non-
linearly with the rest of the structure causing harmonics
in the power output signal at multiples of the rota-
tional rate, 1P. In an ETSU report, Azzam et al. pre-
dicted that torsional vibrations in the drive train, and
therefore variations in power, would show a clear
change in pattern due to blade defects, and that the
nature of the change could help to determine the type
of fault [4].Depending on the type of nonlinearity, the
harmonics may be phase-coupled to the fundamental
frequency, and this coupling may vary as the blade
properties deteriorate.
With the introduction of commercial wind turbines
with megawatt ratings, the possibility of unexpected
aero-elastic effects such as blade flutter has emerged as
a potentially serious problem. In a few notable cases,
blade flutter has been strong enough to destroy a
blade. Such large vibrations should be reflected in the
power output and may also be detectable.
1.3 Some differences from conventional
condition monitoring
From a condition monitoring perspective, wind tur-
bines differ from conventional steam turbines in many
important aspects.
(i) The main shaft of a wind turbine turns at low speed
and is coupled to an induction or asynchronous gener-
ator through a gearbox (some recent designs incorpo-
rate low-speed generators to eliminate the need for a
gearbox). The main shaft of a steam turbine turns at
synchronous speed and is coupled directly to a syn-
chronous generator.
(ii) The primary modes of vibration in a wind turbine
involve the blades and tower as well as drive train,
instead of primarily the torsional modes of the drive
shaft in a steam turbine.
(iii) The primary modes of vibration in a wind turbine
are above the rotational frequency of the main shaft,
instead of below in the case of the steam turbine. In
fact, an important role of some condition monitoring
systems for steam turbines is to watch the transition
through resonances as the turbine runs up to the oper-
ating speed.
(iv) The vibration of the component of interest (the
blades of a wind turbine versus the drive shaft and
bearing in a conventional steam turbine) cannot be eas-
ily measured. Accelerometers on the blades would
require either telemetry or signal slip-rings to transmit
the signals to the remote monitoring point.
(v) A wind turbine operates at constantly varying
power output which may change rapidly, whereas the
output of most steam turbines changes relatively slowly
and predictably.
(vi) Wind turbines are still relatively low in power (0.1
to 2MW), and so a condition monitoring package for
wind turbines would be much less expensive than that
applied to conventional steam turbines with power rat-
ings of 100-600MW.
1.4 Why use bicoherence?
For this type of condition monitoring to be successful,
small physical changes in the machine must be detected
IEE Proc.-Vis. Image Signal Process, Vol. 145,No. 3, June 1998
from a very noisy signal. If some feature of the signal
amplifies the change and provides a reliable signature,
then detection is made easier. Presence or absence of
phase coupling between frequency components of the
signal may provide such a signature. Since the power
spectral density (PSD) discards phase information, it
cannot detect the presence of phase coupling. The bis-
pectrum, a third-order spectral statistic, detects phase
coupling, but its magnitude varies with the power in
the signal and therefore is not convenient for detection
purposes. Bicoherence, a normalised bispectrum, over-
comes this problem.
2 Power spectral density and bicoherence
2. I Power spectral density
The PSD Sx(u)serves as a convenient starting point for
defining the bispectrum and bicoherence, and how they
may be estimated. The PSD is the Fourier transform of
the autocorrelation function. The direct method for
estimating the PSD is via the fast Fourier transform
(FFT) of the data. To reduce the variance of the esti-
mate, the data are divided into shorter, and perhaps
overlapping, segments and the results of each segment
are averaged [5]. The mean is removed from each seg-
ment, and a time window, such as the Hanning win-
dow, may be applied to each segment before computing
the FFT, in order to overcome spectral leakage. Thus,
using notation to indicate the discrete nature of the
data sequence and the estimate, the estimate of the
PSD $(k) is
Sz(k)= CE [XkXJ (1)
where Xk is the FFT of the data of one segment, x(n), n
= 1, ..., M , where M is the segment length; C is a con-
stant that may include the sample period and a correc-
tion for loss of energy due to time domain windowing;
* denotes the complex conjugation; and E[ ] indicates
statistical expectation, approximated by averaging.
2.2 Bispectrum
The bispectrum is the two-dimensional Fourier trans-
form of the third-order cumulant sequence of x(n) [6],
and it may also be estimated directly from the FFT of
data segments in very much the same way as the PSD
[61:
B&,1) = E [XkX&+,] (2)
Note that the bispectrum is two-dimensional and com-
plex. Nikias and Raghuveer [7] describe many of its
properties; the more useful properties for condition
monitoring are listed here.
(i) If x(k) is a stationary zero-mean Gaussian process,
then its bispectrum is identically zero. Unlike the PSD,
the bispectrum is theoretically not affected by the pres-
ence of Gaussian noise in the signal.
(ii) The bispectrum detects quadratic phase coupling
(QPC) of harmonic triplets. If three harmonic compo-
nents of a process are related so that the frequency and
phase of the third component is the sum of the fre-
quencies and phases of the remaining two, i.e.
z ( n )= cos(w, n +cpl ) +cos(w2n+ +cos(w3n+ cp2)
where
w3 =w1 +w2 and (p3 = cpl +cp2
IEE Proc.-Vi,s. Image Signal Process., Vol. 145, No. 3, June 1998
then the shape of the bispectrum is an impulse at the
frequency pair, or bifrequericy (wl, w2)
2.3 Bicoherence
Since the magnitude of the bispectrum varies according
to the power spectrum of a signal, it can be useful to
normalise the bispectrum by the power spectrum. This
is variously called the ‘bisoherency’ [6], the ‘skewness
function’ [8], or simply the ‘bicoherence’ [9], and is
defined as
Sometimes a slightly diffierent denominator is used
where
Sz(w1)Sz(w2) = E [x(wl)x”(~l)]
E [X(w2)X*(w2)]
(6)
is replaced with ~ \ X ( W Xi(c0~)1~]
,) [lo]. Often the magni-
tude or magnitude squared of eqn. 5 is referred to as
the bicoherence [ll]. Combining the estimates of the
PSD and the bispectrum yields the estimate for the
bicoherence b [6]
(7)
The magnitude of the bicoherence indicates how much
of the power in a frequency component is due to phase
coupling with two other components. Noise in the sig-
nal dilutes the phase coupling and reduces the value of
the bicoherence.
2.4 Variance of the estimates
One difficulty in applying higher order spectral esti-
mates is the need for sufficient data to produce an esti-
mate with an acceptably low variance. Even in ideal
circumstances, for example: in the absence of noise, the
underlying statistical properties of a random process
cannot be determined exactly from a finite quantity of
data; there is always some error in the estimate.
Knowledge of the variance of spectral estimates is
required to apply the estimators and to quantitatively
evaluate results. Here the variance of an estimate is
defined as [SI
6
where is the estimate.
The variance of a PSD estimated by the direct
method is [5]
(9)
if K non-overlapping independent segments, no time
domain windowing and no frequency domain
averaging are used. A tirne domain window, such as
the Hanning window which reduces side-lobe leakage,
suppresses the amount of information at the ends of
segments, and thus increases the variance of the
estimate. Overlapping segments by 50% recovers most
of that information and reduces the variance of the
(p3) estimate to about 10% greater than that of an estimate
(3) without overlapping talpered segments [SI. The
following discussion does not further address the
effects of windowing and overlapping on the variance
(4) of the estimates.
143
 The variance of the estimate of bicoherence is less
straightforward to compute. Haubrich [121 argued that
if the bicoherence is known to be zero, the variance of
the estimate would vary inversely with the number of
segments, and that in the limit of a large number of
segments the estimate would be chi-square distributed
with two degrees of freedom. Elgar and Guza [13]
employed numerical simulation to show how non-zero
bicoherence influences the variance of the estimate, and
to find maximum likelihood functions to estimate true
values of the bicoherence based on observed values.
3 Examination of wind turbine power data
3.I Experimental set-up to simulate normal
and damaged blade conditions
Experimental work was carried out on a three-bladed,
upwind, stall-regulated turbine de-rated to 35kW
power at the Wind Test Site at the Rutherford Apple-
ton Laboratory. The 8.2m blades were manufactured
in glass fibre reinforced plastic by the LM Glasfiber
Company. The tower was a lattice type 15.5m high.
In order to assess the efficacy of a damage detection
system, some method of simulating damage is required.
Ideally, it would be possible to weaken a blade, but
practical considerations such as safety do not usually
permit this. It was first proposed to add mass to a
blade to alter the mass distribution, and therefore the
modal properties of that blade. As this does not change
the modal properties in the same way as a reduction in
stiffness, it is not an ideal way to simulate damage.
However, as it may also affect the interaction of the
rotor with the rest of the machine, and thus alter the
harmonics in the power output, it provides an interest-
ing case to examine.
A superior simulation of damage arose during the
project when a blade instrumented for surface pressure
measurement (the ‘unmatched blade) was found to be
significantly less stiff than the matched blade that it
had replaced. The difference in stiffness is due to differ-
ent internal structure, whereas the outside dimensions
are virtually identical since they came from the same
mould. This led to a good test, in which the power out-
put of the turbine with the matched blades could be
compared to that of the machine with one less stiff
blade.
100 r resolution and stationarity: With the assistance of
80 i P
0 2 4 6
radius,m
Fig. 1 Results of deflection tests with matched and unmatched blades
0 unmatched
#+ matched (1294)
+ matched (1291)
Deflection tests were performed to quantify the dif-
ferences in stiffness. Fig. 1 shows results normalised to
the maximum weight applied to the tip of the blade for
144
several series of tests. The lines follow the mean of sev-
eral test results, one line for each blade tested. Blades
1291 and 1294 are from the same production run and
are nominally the same. Although the data sets show
scatter, it is clear that the unmatched blade deflects the
most, and blades 1291 and 1294 deflect the least. Esti-
mates of stiffness from the deflection data indicate that
the unmatched blade is in the order of 10-30% less stiff
than the matched blades, with the greatest difference
near the root.
From January to September 1995, the machine was
configured with the unmatched blades. Data were col-
lected with and without a 5kg mass attached to the
inside of the tip of the instrumented blade. When possi-
ble, data were recorded immediately before and after
the addition of the mass so that wind conditions were
virtually unchanged. The sampling frequency was
1OOHz. The power transducer was specially ordered
from Camille Bauer to have higher than typical
response; it employs pulse width modulation and
includes a two-pole RC-type low-pass output filter with
-3dB point at 4.6Hz, fixed by the manufacturer.
In autumn 1995 the rotor was restored to a matched
condition, and more data sets were collected. One of
the matched blades (1291) had instrumentation
installed identical to that of the unmatched blade. In
addition to power data, blade and hub flapwise acceler-
ations, blade root strains, and a top dead centre mark
were recorded for many of the data sets. The rotor
data were collected with a PC-compatible based acqui-
sition system located in the hub and then transferred
via a fibre-optic serial link to the remote monitoring
point.
3.2 Practical considerations when estimating
bicoherence
In applying spectral estimators including bicoherence
to real data, several practical choices arise, often with
conflicting requirements: one is the amount of data
required to produce a reasonable estimate. Given a
data set, the choice of segment length determines fre-
quency resolution, the risk of the data being non-sta-
tionary, the variance of the estimate and computational
effort.
3.2. I Data length, segment length, frequency
a signal analyser, a sample rate of lOOHz was selected
as the minimum possible to reduce the quantity of data
required for the long time intervals needed, without the
risk of significant aliasing. Data sets of up to 192K
samples were recorded. The maximum practical seg-
ment length on a PC for the computation of the bico-
herence estimate is 2048 points, but using MATLAB
[14] these estimates took over l h to compute on a
90MHz Pentium PC compatible with 40Mb of RAM.
Each estimate based on a segment length of 2048
points yields a matrix of 1025 x 513 double precision
a complex results, which requires at least 24Mb to com-
pute. However, computing only the inner triangle
requires only half the number of data points, consider-
ably reducing memory requirements. Doubling the seg-
ment length quadruples the memory requirement. In
this instance, hard disk-based virtual memory is consid-
erably slower.
The more practical length of 1024 points per segment
increases the number of segments in the estimate to
TEE Proc -Vis Image Signal Process Vol 145 No 3 June 1998
reduce the variance of the estimates, while still giving a
frequency resolution of approximately 0.1 Hz. This is
sufficient to resolve harmonics of the rotational rate of
0.64Hz. Experience with these estimates indicates that
in the order of 100 segments produce sufficient averag-
ing 1151; thus the composite data sets are made up to be
at least lOOK samples long (with one exception in high
winds when only 64K of data were available). The
three blade conditions (matched, unmatched and
unmatched with weight) were combined with three
power levels to give nine separate cases.
3.2.2 Sorting data by segment: Wind turbine
power is not stationary. Power output from the wind
turbine can vary from nearly zero to rated power in
only a few seconds, although a large rotor diameter
helps reduce power variations by averaging wind
speeds over a large blade area. There is also a strong
variation of the wind speed at a period of about 100s.
The operational characteristics of a wind turbine
depend on the power output. Stall-regulated machines
exploit aerodynamic stall in high wind speeds to limit
power output, and pitch-regulated machines vary blade
pitch to either feather or stall the blades in high winds.
In either case, the aerodynamic characteristic changes
with power output.
To counter this non-stationarity and to yield addi-
tional information from the bicoherence analysis, the
data sets were broken into segments of 1024 consecu-
tive points, where the minimum value of the power in a
segment was limited to 0.5kW in order to avoid peri-
ods of power cut-out. Segments were sorted into three
classes according to the mean value of the power: low
power (0.5-12kW), moderate power (12-24kW) and
high power (24-36kW). Long data sets were then con-
structed by concatenating segments. Note that the pres-
ence of segment boundaries means that overlapped
processing is not permitted in calculating the PSD or
bicoherence, and this increases somewhat the variance
of the estimate.
In some cases, the data were adjusted to eliminate
occurrences of zero power output but otherwise keep
intact. This is particularly useful for PSD estimates,
when looking at the variation of the estimates across
different data sets with different wind and weather con-
ditions.
3.3 Results
In the following we present the estimations of PSD of
blade tip acceleration and electrical power output,
coherence between them, and bicoherence of power.
The goal is to find reliable indicators of the condition
of the blades, in this case represented by the three
experimental configurations. The change in PSD and
bicoherence from the matched to unmatched case is
most important since this most closely resembles the
type of change expected with a structural fault in a
blade. The changes fall into two types: changes in
modal frequencies of the structure and changes in
phase coupling. The first changes are easily detected
from blade accelerations when the turbine is stationary
and excited randomly by the wind, but are more diffi-
cult to detect while the turbine is operating; the second
changes depend on the dynamics of rotation and can
only be measured with the machine running.
3.3.1 Blade tip accelerations with the turbine
stationary: If a wind turbine is not operating, then
IEE Proc -VLSImage Signal Process, Vol 145, No 3, June 1998
direct measurement of blade motion with accelerome-
ters and analysis of the measurement via the PSD is
straightforward. A modification to the structure could
be expected to change the modal behaviour of the
structure, which is measured by the accelerometers, and
measurements confirm this.
.
i!
3 0.6
0
1 2 3 4
frequency,Hz
Fig.2 Power spectral density of Jlapwlse blade t p acceleration with
rotor stationary, instrumented blade upwards
matched
unmatched
~
_ _ _ ~unmatched plus weight
Fig. 2 shows the PSD versus frequency of blade tip
acceleration in the flapwise direction, with the instru-
mented blade oriented upwards for the three blade con-
ditions. Three groups of peaks are visible. The peak
close to the 2Hz frequency is due primarily to the first
tower mode, the central peak is due to the first asym-
metrical rotor mode, and the near 3.5Hz frequency
peak is due to the first symmetrical rotor mode of
vibration [16]. Note the shifts in all peaks towards
lower frequency with the unmatched and less stiff blade
fitted. The addition of the weight to the tip of the
unmatched blade makes only a slight difference to the
tower modal frequency. With the turbine running,
blade acceleration data are much more complicated
and difficult to interpret, arid power data contain addi-
tional information, complexity and noise.
0.8
8 0.6
C
E
S
8 0.4
0.2
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6
frequency,Hz
Fig.3 Coherence of jlapwise t@ acceleration to electrical power output
(matched blades)
3.3.2 Coherence of blade tip acceleration with
power output: Coherence between blade tip motion
and electrical power output gives the degree of linear
relationship between the two as a function of fre-
quency. The results of the estimate, shown in Fig. 3,
show high coherence at thle rate of rotation, 0.64Hz,
145
and two other broad peaks centred at 2 and 3.7Hz.
Thus, a direct coupling of tip motion to power output
is confirmed, at least at selected frequencies.
Note that the peaks do not coincide exactly with
those of the stationary PSD of tip acceleration. The
shift to the right of the symmetrical rotor mode is
probably a result of centrifugal stiffening. However,
many peaks of interest in the PSD of power are at fre-
quencies of low coherence with flapwise tip motion,
and therefore are not entirely due to linear coupling.
3.3.3 Changes in the power spectral density
of power output: Since blade vibrations measure-
ments are not usually available, the electrical power
signal provides the next alternative. The power signal
includes effects of dynamics from the entire machine,
such as the drive train and generator, and so is both
complex and noisy.
Fig. 4 shows the PSD of moderate power output for
the matched and unmatched cases. The left and strong-
est peak occurs at the rotational frequency of the
blades, 1P or 0.64Hz. Imbalances between blades, such
as unequal mass moments, pitch setting or twist, intro-
duce variations in power at that frequency. A peak at
twice that frequency is visible in the matched case, but
not in the unmatched case. In low winds and when
mass was added, the 2P peak is quite strong with the
unmatched blades. At high power outputs, it is com-
pletely masked by rising noise levels in all cases. Other
peaks occur at harmonics of the rate of rotation, up to
the twelfth harmonic 12P.
-4
10
0 2 4 6
frequency,Hz
Fig.4 Power spectral density of electrical power
Lower trace: matched
Upper trace: unmatched
O L
2.3 2.4 2.5
frequency,Hz
Fig.5 Close-u of the power spectral density of electricul power, at the
Jirst assymetvica f r o tor mode
~ matched
unmatched
~
~ _ _ _unmatched + weight
146
The broad hump at just less than 2Hz (3P) is due to
the wind field effects, such as turbulence and shear (rise
in wind speed with height), as well as misalignment of
the rotor with the wind direction due to yaw error and
tilt of the rotor from vertical, and other factors such as
tower shadow. The next peak, at 2.45Hz, coincides
with the first asymmetric mode of the rotor, even
though the coherence of flapwise tip motion to power
output is very low at that frequency. Further examina-
tion of that peak shows a small but discernible shift to
the lower frequency with the unmatched blade. Fig. 5
shows PSDs of individual data sets; the bold lines are
the PSDs with the unmatched blade. The shift is con-
sistent across seven data sets with matched blades and
four with unmatched blades, under a variety of wind
and temperature conditions.
Another consistent shift in frequency is observed in a
peak at 4.7Hz, which coincides with the first edgewise
frequency of the rotor. An examination of PSDs of
power with matched blades reveals movement of the
peak as the season progressed from winter to late
spring. When the frequency of the maximum value of
the peak is plotted against the hub temperature
recorded at the hub height, a clear trend of decreasing
frequency with increasing temperature appears, as
shown in Fig. 6. The 95% confidence limits contain at
least half the points if the y value is independent, nor-
mally distributed with constant variance [ 141.
4.8
N
% 4.75
0
s
-cr 4.7
4.65
4.6 I
0 5 10 15 20 25
temperature,'C
Fig.6 Frequency of maximum of p e d near 4.7Hz versus hub height
a 10 temperature
0 matched blades
% matched blades, no airbrake
linear fit
~
.. ..... 95% confidence limits
3.3.4 Changes in bicoherence of power out-
put: Estimates of bicoherence of electrical power yield
results as a function of the bifrequency. The squared
magnitude of the bicoherence may be presented as a
surface or a contour map over a region (-z< w1 < n,
-n < w2 < 76). Fig. 7 shows a portion of the region
(cull wz both positive). The evaluation over the whole
region has many reflections: the region called the 'inner
triangle' (marked IT) represents the most direct evalua-
tion; all others are either identical or complex conju-
gates of this. If this reduced set is presented, there is
too much information for sensible interpretation. To
meet the aim of finding easily discernible changes in
2.6
pattern with change in blade structure, it is preferable
if important information in the result can be extracted
as a function of one variable.
Fixing one frequency and letting the other frequency
vary has the effect of slicing the bicoherence along a
IEE Proc-Vis. Image Signal Process., Vol. 145, No. 3, June 1998
plane parallel to one axis; this idea of using a ‘bicoher-
ence slice’ is shown schematically in Fig. 7. Setting the
fixed frequency at the rate of blade rotation 1P turns
out to be an efficient and simple method of presenting
the differences in the bicoherence between the various
cases. Thus, all peaks that appear are at frequencies
that are phase-coupled with the 1P component. This
has an additional advantage of requiring considerably
less processing time, which would allow larger data sets
and/or higher resolution to be obtained.
0 xi4 Zl2 3x14 7l
01
Fig.7 Region of calculation of the bicoherence
The position of ‘slice’ is shown, evaluated for constant w2
a 0.4
b
0 5 10 15
normalisedfrequency,P
c cases. At moderate and high power, a peak at 7.8P
Fi .8 Slices, at IP, o bicoherence of power for matched, wlmatched
an! unmatched plus we$& c&s
Low electrical power output
a Unmatched
h Unmatched + weight
c Matched
Figs. 8 and 9 show the 1P slices for the three cases in
low (Fig. 8) and moderate (Fig. 9) power categories.
IEE Proc.-Vis. Image S@al Process., Vol. 145, No 3, June 1998
Frequency is normalised by the rotational rate. Each
plot contains at least two examples to indicate, at least
roughly, how consistent the estimates are with different
data sets. By the maximum likelihood functions of
Elgar and Guza [13], an observed bicoherence of 0.2
produced with 64 independent segments corresponds
95% of the time to a true bicoherence of between 0.135
and 0.261. In all cases shlnwn in Figs. 8 and 9, at least
100 segments were used, and so this range is somewhat
smaller. Nevertheless, the observed variations in
bicoherence are largely {consistent with the expected
variance of the estimate, especially in the unmatched
cases. The variation in magnitude of peaks at
harmonics between 6 and 12P for the matched case
may be due to the non-stationarity within the moderate
power category or to sensitivity to wind conditions.
However, the pattern of peaks and valleys in the range
of frequencies from 6P to 12P is consistent within the
matched case.
0.4 I 1
5 0.4
a
G) 0.2
U
._
c
C
0)
z o b
I ,I
0.2
0
0 5 10 15 20
C
normalised frequency,P
of’ power for, matched, unmatched
Moderate electrical power output
a Unmatched
b Unmatched + weight
c Matched
The difference between the matched and unmatched
cases is apparent. The matched case exhibits phase cou-
pled harmonics from 6P to 12P, whereas the
unmatched case is much less regular. In addition, clear
20 peaks at 3.3P (2.13Hz) and 12.8P (8.26Hz) appear
only in the unmatched and unmatched plus weight
(4.7Hz) dominates the Unmatched cases. This is the fre-
quency of the first edgewise rotor mode, as measured
by blade root strain gauges while the turbine operated.
At high power, the squared magnitude of the 1P slice
of bicoherence for the matched case is nearly uniformly
low and below a value of 0.12 for the two data sets
available. The unmatched cases, with and without the
147
added weight (Fig. lo), show a marked difference at
13.35P (8.6Hz), especially considering the similarity
everywhere else.
a,
0.5
?2
.K
8 0.4
._
I)
P 0.3
3
t:
$ 0.2
2
._
c turbines in commercial wind farms.
u
l
C
g 0.1
0
0 5 10 15
normalised frequency,P
Fig.10 Slices, ut I P , of bicoherence of power for, unmatched and
unmatched plus weight cases
High electrical power output
unmatched
~
~ ~ unmatched
_ _ + weight
4 Discussion and conclusions
The changes in PSD suggest that both a reduction in
stiffness in one blade and an equal reduction of stiff-
ness in all blades are possible to detect via the PSD
approach. These faults affect peaks at 2.45Hz and
4.7Hz, respectively, as well as the number and sharp-
ness of peaks at harmonics of the rate of rotation.
Since the 4.7Hz peak coincides with the first edgewise
mode of the rotor, it is likely that it is due primarily to
a change in the edgewise stiffness. The observed shifts
in frequency, although significant, are small. Basing a
fault detection system on such a small change in the
PSD would be difficult, especially since the change in
stiffness employed here is relatively large compared
with that expected in real trials.
On the other hand, slices of bicoherence with one fre-
quency held at the rate of rotation and the other
allowed to vary exhibit a clearly discernible change
with the different configurations. The regularity of
peaks at 6P to 12P in the matched case contrasts well
with the less regular and generally higher magnitude of
bicoherence in the unmatched cases. In the unmatched
cases, the first edgewise rotor mode at 7.3P is clearly
phase-coupled to 1P. An algorithm that calculates the
area under the harmonic peaks and normalises it with
the area between the peaks could exploit both of these
differences. For example, simply summing two values
of bicoherence located around each harmonic from 6P
to 12P, and dividing that by the sum of two values at
each half harmonic from 6.5P to 12.5P, yields an index
of the regularity of the phase coupling at harmonics of
1P. Excluding data from the high power category, the
index for unmatched cases is below 2.02, whereas for
the matched cases it exceeds 8.74. The addition of mass
to the unmatched blades is also clearly reflected by the
appearance of a large peak at 8.6Hz in the bicohereiice
of power data from the high power category. Employ-
148
ing only a slice of the bicoherence has the additional
advantage of greatly reducing the computation
required for the estimate, and thus makes it much more
practical to apply.
For condition monitoring of wind turbine blades to
become a reality, the results shown here for a 45kW
wind turbine must be extended to commercially availa-
ble machines with ratings of 0.5MW or more. Such
work would include developing a comprehensive ana-
lytical and computer simulation model in order to
establish the coupling between blade stiffness and
power output, and measuring power output from wind
5 Acknowledgments
20 This work stems mainly from the results of a two year
project funded by the Engineering and Physical Science
Research Council. The authors would like to thank the
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) for providing
the wind turbine test facilities; members of the Energy
Research Unit at RAL for their help and support; and
Alun Coonick and Leon Freris from the Department of
Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Imperial College,
who provided additional support for Will Jeffries dur-
ing summer 1996.
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