A FRAMEWORK FOR NON-INTRUSIVE OCEAN CURRENT TURBINE ROTOR BLADE IMBALANCE FAULT DETECTION

Ocean current turbines (OCT) convert the kinetic energy housed within the earth’s ocean currents into electricity. However, due to the harsh environmental conditions that these turbines operate in, their system performance naturally degrades over time. This degradation correlates to high operation and maintenance (O&M) costs, which necessitates the need for robust condition monitoring and fault detection (CMFD). Unfortunately, OCT operational data is not publicly available in large and/or diverse enough quantities to develop such frameworks. Therefore, from an industry-wide perspective, the technologies needed to harvest this energy source are still in their infancy.