Increasing the lifetime of wind turbine blades by CBM in a dusty region

The maintenance and shutdown costs of a wind turbine blade have a direct impact on the total production and can represent a loss of as much as 25% of the energy generated. Establishing appropriate condition-based maintenance (CBM) which involves monitoring system becomes a major need for wind turbines located in a dusty region. CBM will considerably reduce the costs and the number of maintenance interventions, knowing that in a dusty region, the blades are submitted to erosive wear which contributes to the modification of the aerodynamic shape of the leading edge, and hence reduce the performance of the wind turbine. This paper shows that before implementing a CBM system, it is necessary to understand the different mechanisms of erosive wear. The experiments carried out show that the installation of this system is very effective in detecting any degradation caused by erosive wear on the surface of a blade during its service.