Self-Sufficient Wind Turbine Condition Monitoring System

Abstract

Unpredictable failures of wind turbines and the associated costs; have contributed to the development of condition monitoring systems. The availability of ultra-low power devices has contributed in creating autonomous systems that operates on energy harvested from the surrounding environment. This research aims to develop a design of a self-sufficient condition monitoring system, that is able to run on renewable energy. Energy is harvested from an electromagnetic energy harvester that harnesses the rotational motion of the wind turbine blades and converts it to useful power. After conditioning and storing the harvested energy, the maximum available power is 435 mW. The energy harvested is used to charge a lithium ion battery for backup as well as power the condition monitoring system. The system is validated by both simulation models and experimental measurements on a wind turbine prototype model.