Wind blades are major structural elements of wind turbines, but they are prone to damage like any other composite component. Blade damage can cause sudden structural failure and the associated costs to repair them are high. Therefore, it is important to identify the causation of damage to prevent defects during the manufacturing phase, transportation, and in operation. Generally, damage in wind blades can arise due to manufacturing defects, precipitation and debris, water ingress, variable loading due to wind, operational errors, lightning strikes, and fire. Early detection and mitigation techniques are required to avoid or reduce damage in costly wind turbine blades. This article provides an extensive review of viable solutions and approaches for damage mitigation in wind turbine blades.

An innovative hybrid QD sensitized photovoltaic carbon nanotubes microyarn has been developed using thermally‐stable and highly conductive carbon nanotubes yarns (CNYs). These CNYs are highly inter‐aligned, ultrastrong and flexible with excellent electrical conductivity, mechanical integrity and catalytic properties. The CNYs are coated with a QD‐incorporated TiO2 microfilm and intertwined with a second set of CNYs as a counter electrode (CE). The maximum photon to current conversion efficiency (ηAM1.5) achieved with prolonged‐time stability was 5.93%. These cells are capable of efficiently harvesting incident photons regardless of direction and generating photocurrents with high efficiency and operational stability. (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

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Real-time load monitoring of critical civil and mechanical structures especially dynamic structures such as wind turbine blades is imperative for longer service life. This article proposed a novel sensor system based on the proprietary in situ triboluminescent optical fiber (ITOF) sensor for dynamic load monitoring. The new ITOF sensor patch consists of an ITOF sensor network with micro-exciters integrated within a polymer matrix. The sensor patch was subjected to repeated flexural loading and produced triboluminescent emissions due to the friction between micro-exciters and ITOF sensors corresponding to each loading cycle. The friction-induced triboluminescent intensity directly depends on the loading rate, the coefficient of friction, and the applied load on patch. In general, the triboluminescent intensity increases exponentially with an increase in load. Additionally, the sensor patches comprising the coarser micro-exciters exhibited better results. Similarly, better results were achieved at higher loading rates although a threshold loading rate is required to excite the triboluminescent crystals for this sample configuration. The proposed new sensor has the ability to monitor dynamic continuous applied loads.

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