Abstract
The blades are crucial components of a wind turbine, and its steady and reliable operation is directly related to the power output. Thus, condition monitoring and fault diagnosis of the wind turbine blades is highly beneficial to the operational cost. This paper presents a study of small horizontal axis wind turbine blade rotational speed measurement by laser Doppler velocimeter based on dual-core photonic crystal fiber (DC-PCF). The theory on the DC-PCF Doppler velocimeter is presented, and the measurement system is designed and tested. Experimental results show that the DCPCF Doppler velocimeter has been proved to work successfully. The uncertainty of the rotational speed is about 0 ~ 4 rpm. The accuracy can meet the requirements for monitoring the rotational operation of the wind turbine. © 2014 SPIE.