The subject matter described herein relates generally to wind turbines and, more particularly, to a method and system for monitoring a wind turbine.
Generally, a wind turbine includes a rotor that includes a rotatable hub assembly having multiple rotor blades. The rotor blades transform wind energy into a mechanical rotational torque that drives one or more generators via the rotor. The generators are sometimes, but not always, rotationally coupled to the rotor through a gearbox. The gearbox steps up the inherently low rotational speed of the rotor for the generator to efficiently convert the rotational mechanical energy to electrical energy, which is fed into a utility grid via at least one electrical connection. Gearless direct drive wind turbines also exist. The rotor, generator, gearbox and other components are typically mounted within a housing, or nacelle, that is positioned on top of a tower.
At least some known wind turbines include one or more components, such as bearings, gears, and/or rotor blades that may become worn down or damaged over time. To detect such component damage, known wind turbines often include a monitoring system that measures vibrations generated by the component during an operation of the wind turbine. Such monitoring systems may be complex and/or may require significant computational resources to extract component damage information from the measured vibrations.