Text mining analysis of wind turbine accidents: An ontology-based framework

Ertek, Gürdal; Xu, Changxin; Zhang, Allan N.

doi:10.1109/bigdata.2017.8258305

Cited by 12 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Wind turbines are mechatronic equipment that generate electricity from wind by first transforming wind power into mechanical power and then to electric power [5] (Figure 1). Wind turbines can be constructed onshore (on land) or offshore (in the sea).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The power output can range from a few hundred watts (W) in residential models to hundreds of kilowatts (kW) and even megawatts (MW) in commercial models [6]. The efficiency of a wind turbine is determined by how the individual parts are configured and designed, including the blades (which need to generate the greatest amount of torque), yaw control system (which helps in maintaining the orientation of the nacelle with respect to the wind direction), rotors (which rotate the shafts), shafts (which propel the generator), gears (which control the shaft speeds), brakes (which stop or decrease the speed of the machines), generator (which generates electricity), and anemometer (which is used to measure wind speeds) [5,7]. While the growth in wind energy is praised owing to its renewable nature, as the literature review (Section 2) reveals, there is only limited research on one of the most important risks of wind turbines, namely, wind turbine accidents, failures, and breakdowns.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the growth in wind energy is praised owing to its renewable nature, as the literature review (Section 2) reveals, there is only limited research on one of the most important risks of wind turbines, namely, wind turbine accidents, failures, and breakdowns. Furthermore, earlier work is mostly based on summary statistics and cross-tabular analysis (Section 2.2), and only two research studies [5,8] were identified (Section 2.4), where advanced data analytics techniques were applied for systematic analysis of wind turbine accident news.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other organizations such as "Rettet den Odenwald" ("Save the Odenwald" https://rettet-den-odenwald.de/, accessed on 7 October 2021), "Stop These Things" (https://stopthesethings.com/about/, accessed on 7 October 2021), "saveourskylineohio" (https://saveourskylineohio.com/, accessed on 7 October 2021), "WindWahn-Vogelseberg" (http://ww-vb.de/pages/home.php, accessed on 7 October 2021), "Save the Huron Mountains" (https://savethehuronmountains.org/, accessed on 7 October 2021), and "Landesverband Vernunftkraft-Hessen eV" (http://www.vernunftkrafthessen.de/wordpress/ueber-uns/, accessed on 7 October 2021) have also published articles highlighting wind turbine failures. While several papers (as detailed in the next section) communicate important statistics, the systematic application of data mining and scientific methods for the analysis of accident news data can be found only in [5,8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Analyzing a Decade of Wind Turbine Accident News with Topic Modeling

Ertek

Kailas

2021

Sustainability

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Despite the significance and growth of wind energy as a major source of renewable energy, research on the risks of wind turbines in the form of accidents and failures has attracted limited attention. Research that applies data analytics methodologically in this context is scarce. The research presented here, upon construction of a text corpus of 721 selected wind turbine accident and failure news reports, develops and applies a custom-developed data analytics framework that integrates tabular analysis, visualization, text mining, and machine learning. Topic modeling was applied for the first time to identify and classify recurring themes in wind turbine accident news, and association mining was applied to identify contextual terms associated with death and injury. The tabular and visual analyses relate accidents to location (offshore vs. onshore), wind turbine life cycle phases (transportation, construction, operation, and maintenance), and the incidence of death and injury. As one of the insights, more incidents were found to occur during operation and transportation. Through topic modeling, topics associated most with deaths and injuries were revealed. The results could benefit wind turbine manufacturers, service providers, energy companies, insurance companies, government bodies, non-profit organizations, researchers, and other stakeholders in the wind energy sector.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Analyzing a Decade of Wind Turbine Accident News with Topic Modeling

Ertek

Kailas

2021

Sustainability

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“…Equipped with a more realistic view of the impact of wind generation on meeting an increasing world primary energy need, we can now turn our attention to the public safety risk impacts of wind generators as identified in the Introduction, presenting the "Findings" that arose from each aspect of the study results. • A "text-mining" paper in 2017 [11] that studied wind turbine accidents notes, "As of January 2016, the most extensive data available on the Internet on wind turbines accidents was published by the Caithness Windfarm Information Forum (CWIF). "…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wind Turbine Public Safety Risk, Direct and Indirect Health Impacts

Palmer

2018

JEC

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Wind turbines are often perceived as benign. This can be attributed to the population majority dwelling in urban locations distant from most wind turbines. Society may understate the risk to individuals living near turbines due to an overstatement of the perceived benefits of turbines, and an understatement of the risk of injury from falling turbine parts, or shed ice. Flaws in risk calculation may be attributed to a less than fully developed safety culture. Indications of this are the lack of a comprehensive industry failure database, and safety limits enabling the industry growth, but not protective of the public. A comprehensive study of wind turbine failures and risks in the Canadian province of Ontario gives data to enable validation of existing failure models. Failure probabilities are calculated, to show risk on personal property, or in public spaces. Repeated failures, and inadequate safety separation show public safety is not currently assured. A method of calculating setbacks from wind turbines to mitigate public risk is shown. Wind turbines with inadequate setbacks can adversely impact public health both directly from physical risk and indirectly by irritation from loss of safe use of property. Physical public safety setbacks are separate from larger setbacks required to prevent irritation from noise and other stressors, particularly when applied to areas of learning, rest and recuperation. The insights provided by this paper can assist the industry to enhance its image and improve its operation, as well as helping regulators set safety guidelines assuring protection of the public.

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