Innovative On-Line Oil Sensor Technologies for the Condition Monitoring of Wind Turbines

A description of a system, developed for the condition monitoring of wind turbines, which combines innovative, real time, and on-line oil sensor technologies is described. 

The system integrates the measurement of the three main parameters that assess the status of the lubricating oil in the lubrication system using different technologies: the degree of oil degradation using visible absorbance spectroscopy; the water content using near infrared spectroscopy; and the presence of wear debris using image processing technology. The measuring principles, sensor integration and validation test results obtained in artificially degraded oil samples are presented.