Making wind energy more affordable is the goal of a photonics specialist at Aston University.
Dr. Sergey Sergeyev. Image Credit: Aston University
The Royal Academy of Engineering has awarded associate professor Dr. Sergey Sergeyev a nearly £100,000 grant to develop an affordable technique for keeping track of the health of wind turbine blades.
30% of Europe’s power is anticipated to come from wind energy by 2030. Nearly a third of the entire cost of a wind farm is spent on maintenance since the enormous turbines operate in challenging settings.
Dr. Sergeyev’s study will look at ways to monitor the form of wind turbine blades to determine how well they are functioning.
It is now impossible to determine how the damage was created and how severe it was since there is no method for showing how damage to a blade started and proceeded.
Dr. Sergeyev will be collaborating with Insensys, a sensor technology company. He will create a technique that merges fiber optics, laser physics, nonlinear science, and signal processing disciplines by analyzing the fundamental feature of light, polarization.
Dr. Sergeyev works at the Aston Institute of Photonic Technologies (AIPT), which is part of the University’s College of Physical Sciences and Engineering. He has expertise in polarization phenomena, fiber optic sensors, and laser physics.
His research will be inexpensive since he will investigate testbeds based on basic specimens of materials similar to genuine blades.
I am delighted to have received this grant to explore methods for improving the efficiency of such an important source of green energy. The condition monitoring of wind turbine blades includes damage detection, localization, classification, and evaluation.
Dr. Sergey Sergeyev, Associate Professorial Research Fellow, Aston Institute of Photonics Technology, College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Aston University
“My project is primarily based on fiber optic sensors—called fiber Bragg grating sensors—which have high sensitivity to distortions, such as stretch, twist, and bend, which change the shape of the composite material. To explore such property, we will advance our recently developed polarimetric technique to detect the structural defects,” Dr. Sergeyev further added.
The award was made as an industrial fellowship by the Royal Academy of Engineering, and the research will span two years.