High-altitude challenges Field 3D scanning of wind turbine blades

Maintaining the wind turbine and the entire wind farm is a huge challenge
.
Typically, wind turbines are designed for a life of 20 years
.
During these 20 years, they were affected by various weather conditions and heavy loads, but thanks to modern data acquisition technology products and advanced digital models, their service life was extended and even annual power generation increased
.

In order to optimize the power generation over its entire life cycle, its operating conditions must be detailed and then regularly maintained
on this basis.
The purpose of this is to control wear, prevent accidental vibrations and/or weak spots, and prevent the integrity of turbine structures and components from being compromised, while maximizing power generation
.

The Spanish company Nabla Wind Power is part of the Nabla Wind Hub Group, an independent service provider that provides wind farms with its own proprietary multi-technology product solutions aimed at extending their life, improving performance and optimizing maintenance measures
.

Digitalization in high-risk work environments

After much research, the most suitable 3D scanner for this task is the Metrology-grade portable Blu-ray 3D scanner HandySCAN 3D | BLACK series
.
With its dynamic referencing function, it can accurately acquire data
under harsh conditions.
Vibration does not affect the results, and the uncertainty of the measurement is much less than a millimeter
.
Since this task had to be carried out directly on the wind turbine itself, Creaform's application engineers trained two specialized technicians from Asaken to help them understand how to use HandySCAN 3D
.
The technician then climbed to the top of the 130-meter-high wind turbine and left the hub and descended to work in the air 65 meters above the ground
.

The first thing they had to do was attach the target point
to the 7-meter section at the tail end of one of the rotor blades.
These target points are used as reference points for the HandySCAN 3D and the scan
begins.
One of the professional technicians uses the laptop, while the other operates the 3D scanner
.
At the same time, Creaform's application engineers view scans in real time on the ground via Teamviewer
.
At this altitude, wind conditions are always an issue, and on several occasions they had to stop working
because the wind was too strong.
In addition, some technical problems with the wind turbine itself interfered with the scanning process: for example, the rotor jammed so that they could not enter the vertical position
.
Against all odds, they finally successfully completed the scan
.

Eder Murga, Head of Operations at Nabla, is very pleased with the results: "Whether it's Creaform or Asaken, the service they provide is very professional
.
Despite the harsh conditions and the fact that our work was repeatedly interrupted due to strong winds, everyone involved overcame the harsh conditions with maximum flexibility and, in the end, we succeeded in achieving the desired result
.
Handheld self-referential measurement systems like the HandySCAN 3D portable blue-light scanner are the only tools on the market that can measure in such harsh environments.

”