Detection of coupling misalignment by extended orbits

In this paper a ‘SpectraQuest’ demonstrator is used to introduce misalignment into a rotating machinery set-up. Depending on the coupling used in the set-up, angular and/or parallel misalignment can be brought in the rotating system. Traditionally, the data captured by accelerometers is transferred into the frequency domain in order to interpret the vibrations measured by the accelerometers. The frequency domain has proven its usefulness but even the time domain can come in handy to draw the right conclusions regarding to misalignment in a rotating set-up. Orbit plots display the integrated data captured by accelerometers, in order to display the movement of the rotating shaft. The influence of the misalignment and imbalance on these orbits will be discussed

Structural Health Monitoring of Wind Turbines Using a Digital Image Correlation System on a UAV

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have recently emerged as a robust tool for remote inspection and data acquisition at places that are either inaccessible or riskier to perform measurements. To quantify the level of strain/stress and loading conditions that the rotating structures such as wind turbine experience during operation, an approach is proposed that can perform a nondestructive evaluation of these rotating structures using non-contact, three-dimensional (3D) digital image correlation (DIC). This technique addresses the benefit of non-interference with structure functionality and can be used for rotating or non-rotating structures. In this project, a synchronized set of a stereo camera system is used to acquire the images of a rotating turbine. These images are processed to obtain displacement, geometry, and strain over the wind turbine blades during deformation