Abstract
The past decade has witnessed a surge in the offshore wind farm developments across the world. Although this form of cleaner and greener energy is beneficial and eco-friendly, the production of wind energy entails high life-cycle costs. The costs associated with inspections, monitoring and repairs of wind turbines are primary contributors to the high costs of electricity produced in this way and are disadvantageous in today's competitive economic environment. There is limited research being done in the probabilistic optimization of life-cycle costs of offshore wind turbines structures and their components. This paper proposes a framework for assessing the life cycle cost of wind turbine structures subject to damage and deterioration. The objective of the paper is to develop a mathematical probabilistic cost assessment framework which considers deterioration, inspection, monitoring, repair and maintenance models and their uncertainties. The uncertainties are etched in the accuracy and precision of the monitoring and inspection methods and can be considered through the probability of damage detection of each method. Schedules for inspection, monitoring and repair actions are demonstrated using a decision tree. Examples of a generalised deterioration process integrated with the cost analysis using a decision tree are shown for a wind turbine foundation structure.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Smart Materials and Nondestructive Evaluation for Energy Systems 2016 |
Subtitle of host publication | Proceedings of SPIE |
Editors | Norbert Meyendorf |
Publisher | SPIE |
Volume | 9806 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 9781510600478 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 7 Apr 2016 |
Event | Smart Materials and Nondestructive Evaluation for Energy Systems 2016 - Las Vegas, United States Duration: 21 Mar 2016 → 23 Mar 2016 |
Conference
Conference | Smart Materials and Nondestructive Evaluation for Energy Systems 2016 |
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Country/Territory | United States |
City | Las Vegas |
Period | 21/03/16 → 23/03/16 |
Keywords
- Inspections
- life-cycle cost
- maintenance
- monitoring
- optimization
- wind turbines