DATA ACQUISITION FRAMEWORK AND SYSTEM IDENTIFICATION OF AN IN-SERVICE WIND TURBINE

During recent years, wind energy has become an important renewable energy source, and a moreattractive alternative to conventional ways of energy generation due to higher capacity utilizationfactors and shorter return of investments. Demand for larger wind turbines, which can produce moreenergy in the short term, is increasing rapidly in the market. To ensure that the turbine continuouslygenerates energy, and stays perfectly operational during its lifespan, there is an increasing need to havea comprehensive understanding of their dynamics from a structural point of view. In this study, a noveldistributed data acquisition system is designed and deployed throughout the tower height on a 2.5MWin-service fully operational wind turbine in Izmir/Turkey. Using the collected response data, thedynamic properties of the turbine tower are estimated by using operational modal analysis methods andcompared with the modal analysis of the detailed finite element model.