Partners of the “Innovative future-proof testing methods for reliable critical components in wind turbines” (INNTERESTING) project have brought to an end three years of research and development on design tools to predict the reliability of critical components in wind turbines.INNTERESTING has developed a hybrid methodology to assess the reliability of larger wind turbine components without the need to build larger test benches in the future. This hybrid testing methodology combines results from physical tests and virtual testing through smart fusion processes and upscaling techniques to predict the reliability, lifetime, and failures of full-scale wind turbine components.
After having proved and validated this new hybrid methodology through three different Case Studies (CS), it can be concluded that:
- The methodology has been validated on each case study for which the Innteresting approach was developed.
- The INNTERESTING approach not only tests or validates the component, but it also provides knowledge about the effect of variability in the manufacturing processes of materials and about specific failure modes that otherwise would be very expensive to obtain.
- The downscaled tests have been trending thanks to their lower cost, but upscaling techniques are necessary.
- A new concept should be considered in the industry: probability of failure of the components, instead of deterministic damage value.
- Recently popularised technologies such as A.I. and Machine Learning can be used for reliability prediction, but it is important to understand what is physically happening.
As a main conclusion, it is considered that doing more research on upscaling techniques is crucial for the future development of manufacturing processes within the wind industry.
INNTERESTING is a collaborative R&D project in which Ikerlan, Laulagun, KU Leuven, Moventas, Siemens, Vito, VTT and the Energy Cluster Association have participated.