CSI Researchers have successfully demonstrated the application of fiber optic strain sensing for structural health monitoring (SHM) of offshore wind turbines. In a full-scale test on UC Berkeley’s shaking table, two Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing (DFOS) technologies—Optical Frequency-Domain Reflectometry (OFDR) and Phase-sensitive Optical Time-Domain Reflectometry (-OTDR)—were used to monitor dynamic strain profiles. These technologies captured both global deformations and local strains under simulated offshore conditions, including scenarios with loose bolts at turbine flanges. The study highlights -OTDR’s potential for SHM of large civil systems due to its ability to measure dynamic strain over kilometers, though vibration noise mitigation remains critical. This work marks a major step forward in offshore wind turbine monitoring and SHM techniques.
Figure 1. Wind turbine tower shake test animation
Structural health monitoring of offshore wind turbines using distributed acoustic sensing (DAS)
James T. Xu, Linqing Luo, Jaewon Saw, Chien-Chih Wang, Sumeet K. Sinha, Ryan Wolfe, Kenichi Soga, Yuxin Wu & Matthew DeJong