Inherent pitch control for wind power through composite material properties and design

Abstract

Todaypsilas wind power plants use motor driven pitch control for rotor blades as a standard design feature for obtaining optimum efficiency. In harsh environment, such a control element may be critical in case of fault. In order to avoid total damage of the blades an inherently working pitch control design is proposed. It uses the special composite material properties and an advanced design. In addition, a continuous monitoring of rotor blade stress for defect detection is included by multi-position strain gauge signal acquisition and evaluation.