Princeton Junction, NJ – December 2007 – Physical Acoustics Corporation (PAC), a member of MISTRAS Group Inc., announces the supply of a PCI-8 Multi-channel Acoustic Emission System to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado and to Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico, for remote wind blade monitoring.
The PCI-8 AE System uses multiple sensors or channels to detect acoustic emission (AE) waveforms and features, using the advanced AEwin Windows software. This system will be used for static fatigue testing of wind turbine blades.

The purchase of the PCI-8 System permit enhanced stress correlation in conjunction with other external sensor inputs. This gives a better understanding of how composites behave under loads. In addition, the PAC AEViewer software package, provided to Sandia, allows scientists to remotely monitor and control their AE system.

With wind power becoming a growing source of energy in the world, the need to understand reliability and performance characteristics of wind turbine blades has taken on a greater urgency. In order to improve power turbine blade efficiency while maintaining strength and elasticity in severe wind loading conditions, both of the labs are utilizing the PAC AE System, along with several other technologies.

“Power Utilities across the country are starting to tap high power output wind turbines for use in their wind farms,” said Carlton Gonsalves, the AE Sales Manager for PAC. “The review of our AE System will give the research labs a more thorough understanding of wind turbine performance characteristics, which will allow them to implement and design better and stronger wind turbine blades.”

The National Wind Technology Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories are the nation’s primary laboratories leading the efforts in renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. The goal of the wind energy research and development program is to increase the viability of wind technology. This is done by improving wind turbine performance and reducing the overall cost of energy from wind.