Structural health monitoring for wind turbine foundations

The construction of onshore wind turbines has been increasing rapidly as the UK attempts to meet its renewable energy targets. As the UK’s future energy depends increasingly on wind farms, safety and security are critical to the success of this renewable energy source. Structural integrity of the tower and its components is a critical element of this security of supply. With the stochastic nature of the load regime, a bespoke structural health monitoring system is required to monitor the integrity of the concrete foundations supporting the tower. This paper presents an assessment of ‘embedded can’-style foundation failure modes in large onshore wind turbines and proposes a novel condition-based monitoring solution to aid in early warning of failure.