Patent ID: 9330449
Filing Date: 2016-05-03
CPC Classification: F03D,G01N,G06T,H04N,Y02E

Claim Text:
1. A method of remotely inspecting a wind turbine blade in situ, comprising: acquiring a continuous sequence of images of more than one wind turbine blade with a thermal imaging camera as each blade passes through a field of view of the thermal imaging camera while the turbine is rotating and undergoing cyclic load due to gravity and variations in wind loads and when the blades have substantially reached thermal equilibrium with ambient air after sunset in order to produce thermal imaging data; analyzing the thermal imaging data to identify atypical thermal patterns that could be indicative of frictional heating within or around defects within the wind turbine blades; and recording the images and creating a composite image of a selection of sequential blade images with a video peak-store program to track motion of a source of thermal emissions to distinguish between an actual thermal emitting area on the blade from unrelated thermal effects.