title: Damage tolerance and structural monitoring for wind turbine blades.
abstract: The paper proposes a methodology for reliable design and maintenance of wind turbine rotor blades using a condition monitoring approach and a damage tolerance index coupling the material and structure. By improving the understanding of material properties that control damage propagation it will be possible to combine damage tolerant structural design, monitoring systems, inspection techniques and modelling to manage the life cycle of the structures. This will allow an efficient operation of the wind turbine in terms of load alleviation, limited maintenance and repair leading to a more effective exploitation of offshore wind.
authors.affiliation: Technical University of Denmark, Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark mamc@dtu.dk.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McGugan
authors.affiliation: Technical University of Denmark, Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pereira
authors.affiliation: Technical University of Denmark, Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark.
authors.forename: B F
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6435-6482
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Sørensen
authors.affiliation: Technical University of Denmark, Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Toftegaard
authors.affiliation: Technical University of Denmark, Frederiksborgvej 399, 4000 Roskilde, Denmark.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Branner
keywords: damage tolerance; offshore wind; smart structure