Team 27: Condition Monitoring System for Wind Turbine Lightning Protection
Above: An autonomous vehicle that deploys a conducting cable in wind turbine blades to determine lightning protection system continuity and reduce maintenance costs.
Wind turbines are potential targets for lightning strikes. The turbine’s lightning protection system (LPS) is cumbersome and costly to check but needed to prevent blade damage. We have designed an autonomous vehicle that lays a temporary cable on the existing LPS inside a blade. A time-domain reflectometer is then used to measure the continuity and locate potential damages along the blade LPS.
Sponsorship
Sponsored by Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy
Director
Eric Rubio
[video:https://youtu.be/zrKX9_6Av3Y]
Team Members
- Faraj Abdelglil - Electrical Engineer
- Mohamed Adil - CAD/Manufacturing Engineer
- Adrian Gutierrez - Project Manager
- Stryker Holland - Logistics Manager
- Mia Miller - Systems Engineer
- Erick Quintanilla - Financial Manager
- Miles Wright - Test Engineer