Wind Energy is a fast growing industry. However, wind turbines are expensive to build, so they need proper maintenance to prolong service life. Since blades are the most important components in the wind turbine, this project prototyped a low cost sensing system to monitor blades' health. The sensor board uses Atmel microcontrollers to monitor the blade's vibration frequency by sampling a data set of 128 acceleration measurements. An integer version of Fast Fourier Transform is used to process those data. The result is then sent via radio wirelessly to a receiver for future processing. Through calculation with collected data, theoretically, the system can run for 30+ years with lithium batteries if the accelerometer on the microcontroller board is replaced. The system has been tested on a vibration shaker, and it is also tested in single disturbance with wood and aluminum beam.
","abstract_html":"<p>Wind Energy is a fast growing industry. However, wind turbines are expensive to build, so they need proper maintenance to prolong service life. Since blades are the most important components in the wind turbine, this project prototyped a low cost sensing system to monitor blades' health. The sensor board uses Atmel microcontrollers to monitor the blade's vibration frequency by sampling a data set of 128 acceleration measurements. An integer version of Fast Fourier Transform is used to process those data. The result is then sent via radio wirelessly to a receiver for future processing. Through calculation with collected data, theoretically, the system can run for 30+ years with lithium batteries if the accelerometer on the microcontroller board is replaced. The system has been tested on a vibration shaker, and it is also tested in single disturbance with wood and aluminum beam.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Cheung, Chun Kau"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"MS in Mechanical Engineering","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":"Mechanical Engineering","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["John Ridgely"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2011,"date_issued":"2011-09-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2011-09-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:31:11Z","subjects":[],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["10.15368/theses.2011.183"],"render_values":[{"text":"10.15368/theses.2011.183","href":"https://doi.org/10.15368/theses.2011.183","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/628","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["John Ridgely"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Cheung, Chun Kau"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2011-09-09T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Mechanical Engineering"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["MS in Mechanical Engineering"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/628","10.15368/theses.2011.183"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Wind Energy is a fast growing industry. However, wind turbines are expensive to build, so they need proper maintenance to prolong service life. Since blades are the most important components in the wind turbine, this project prototyped a low cost sensing system to monitor blades' health. The sensor board uses Atmel microcontrollers to monitor the blade's vibration frequency by sampling a data set of 128 acceleration measurements. An integer version of Fast Fourier Transform is used to process those data. The result is then sent via radio wirelessly to a receiver for future processing. Through calculation with collected data, theoretically, the system can run for 30+ years with lithium batteries if the accelerometer on the microcontroller board is replaced. The system has been tested on a vibration shaker, and it is also tested in single disturbance with wood and aluminum beam.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Small Wind Turbine Blade Sensor for Condition Based Maintenance"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["John Ridgely"],"dc:creator":["Cheung, Chun Kau"],"dc:date.available":["2011-09-09T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Wind Energy is a fast growing industry. However, wind turbines are expensive to build, so they need proper maintenance to prolong service life. Since blades are the most important components in the wind turbine, this project prototyped a low cost sensing system to monitor blades' health. The sensor board uses Atmel microcontrollers to monitor the blade's vibration frequency by sampling a data set of 128 acceleration measurements. An integer version of Fast Fourier Transform is used to process those data. The result is then sent via radio wirelessly to a receiver for future processing. Through calculation with collected data, theoretically, the system can run for 30+ years with lithium batteries if the accelerometer on the microcontroller board is replaced. The system has been tested on a vibration shaker, and it is also tested in single disturbance with wood and aluminum beam.
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