Solutions for wind turbine monitoring

Wind has been known as a source of power since ancient times; sailboats, windmills and wind pumps were used throughout the world for centuries until more modern technologies replaced them in the 20th century. But the oil crisis of the 1970s changed the entire energy environment: renewable energies suddenly came back into fashion, and wind power now meets around 7% of total energy demand in the USA alone.

Kistler's portfolio for this segment includes a cloud solution for wind turbine monitoring based on its KiDAQ integrated data acquisition system: data captured from the wind turbine – including temperature, torque, vibration and power measurements – is available online 24/7 to enable real-time wind turbine monitoring. Structural testing of wind turbine blades is another important application: it features a highly robust ceramic shear sensor in a polymeric ground-isolated housing, with adjustable measuring direction around a rotating axis and a TEDS (Transducer Electronic Data Sheet) with tight sensitivity deviation requirements.