Overview of types of damage of a wind farm

Abstract

Wind farms are expensive and technically complex equipment. Maintaining it in working condition is an important task not only from an economic point of view, but also from a practical point of view. Even minor breakdowns and damages should be eliminated quickly.

Wind farms are constantly being upgraded and improved. They are produced under specific operating conditions. However, this cannot fully exclude emergency situations. Therefore, engineering services involved in monitoring the operation of a wind farm should conduct inspections with some frequency.

Until recently, such inspections were carried out entirely by people, which was associated with various problems and risks. People put their lives in danger, money is spent on the departure of a team of engineers to perform a relatively simple inspection operation.

Recently, with the development of unmanned aerial vehicles, the practice of using them to inspect wind farms has appeared. This makes it easier and cheaper to inspect. It is enough for several engineers to control an unmanned aerial vehicle to conduct at least an external inspection of the wind farm.

This study can be useful in the development and design of computer vision systems aimed at operating during inspections of wind farms. The established classifications, types and frequencies of damage can significantly simplify their development by simplifying the list of recognized damage to the most common.