A Modular SHM-Scheme for Engineering Structures under Changing Conditions: Application to an Offshore Wind Turbine

Abstract : Many countries worldwide and in Europe still have the goal of a future cut of CO2 emission in common. A shift from fossil to renewable energy source is the logical consequence. (Offshore) wind turbines ((O)WTs) play an important role in the so called Ògreenî energy sector. An increasing number of remote offshore plants and an ageing fleet of onshore structures raise the demand of structural health monitoring (SHM) in this field. Guidelines still lack firm establishments and SHM is supposed to help assuring a safe operation and a possible extension of the lifetime.newline The work presented displays a modular SHM scheme applicable for engineering structures under varying environmental and operational conditions (EOCs). The procedure is applied to a 5MW OWT in the German bight, located in the test field textitalpha ventus. The integration into and application of the complete SHM scheme is presented through different condition parameters (CPs), machine learning (data classification) and hypothesis testing.