Abstract
The exact load measurements for the mechanical parts of a wind turbine are important step both fur the evaluation of a specific wind turbine design and for a certification process. A common method for a mechanical load measurement is using a strain gauge sensing. Two main problems ought to be answered in order for this method to be applied to the wind turbine project. These are strain gauge calibration and non-contact signal transmission from the strain gauge output to a load monitoring system. This paper suggests reliable solutions fer these two problems. A Bluetooth, a short range wireless data communication technology, is used to solve the second problem. The first one, the strain gauge calibration methodology for a load measurement in a wind turbine application, is fully explained in this paper. Various mechanical loadings for a strain gauge calibration in a wind turbine load measurement are introduced and analyzed. Initial experimental results which are obtained from a 1 kW small size wind turbine are analyzed, and the uncertainty problem in estimating mechanical loads using a calibration matrix is fully covered in this paper.
