Industries
Sensoria™ Wind Blade Monitoring

AE detects lightning strikes, skin ruptures, cracking & more.

Sensoria™ features a data acquisition system and one sensor per blade.

Sensor installed in an anti-vibration mount

Sensoria™ is a 24/7/365 blade monitor that continuously detects and reports blade damages to track the integrity of wind turbine blades, helping to maximize blade uptime and performance.

Monitoring wind turbine blades for damages in efficient and effective ways can be one of the most challenging tasks for wind site managers, technicians, and fleet engineers. Blades are susceptible to damage from a variety of causes and sources, ranging from environmental factors such as lightning to normal wear-and-tear leading to worsening corrosion. With these defects often out of sight, particularly with inspections only being conducted once a year or less, staying fully aware of true blade integrity is often not as efficient a process as it could be.

MISTRAS’ Sensoria™ system can help to solve some of the most challenging tasks in the wind energy sector: staying aware of the integrity of wind turbine blades while maximizing turbine uptime.

Sensoria™ offers a unique solution for blade integrity management through 24/7/365 remote monitoring and data reporting. MISTRAS combines industry-leading Acoustic Emission (AE) technology with an easily accessible data portal to help protect your blades at every phase of their operations.

Damages Detected by Sensoria™

Sensoria™ detects a variety of damages and defects on wind turbine blades. These damages include:

• Lightning strikes
• Blade skin ruptures and perforations – including those caused by leading-edge erosion
• High-energy impacts
• Cracking and delaminations

Hidden defects that often are not visible to the human eye are detected due to the highly-advanced nature of Sensoria™ monitoring. This allows all damages to be discovered faster and more accurately than traditional methods.

Sensoria™ Hardware & Acoustic Emission (AE) Technology

Sensoria™ is comprised of AE sensors and a data acquisition system installed on a turbine. MISTRAS technicians install this hardware via rope access capabilities. One sensor is installed within each turbine blade and is designed to operate continuously.

The AE technology of the sensors “listens” for changes in the structure of blades to indicate a crack, rupture, or other forms of damage. Once detected, the sensor sends this information to the Sensoria™ system, a data acquisition box installed in the hub of the turbine.

Sensoria™ Insights Data Portal

The Sensoria™ Insights web application enables operators to view blade integrity data at any time from anywhere. When damages are detected and confirmed, the portal sends notifications to operators to alert them of potential integrity issues, with all data collected from the sensors accessible through the Insights portal. These real-time alerts and mobile accessibility make accessing blade integrity data portal as simple as checking your phone. 

The wind blade integrity data found in the Insights portal helps operators to make more informed inspection and maintenance decisions, by helping them prioritize which blades require immediate support and which can be pushed out until the next scheduled outage. In addition to informing integrity decisions, the Sensoria™ monitor also helps personnel optimize their inventory planning spare parts management, by eliminating the need to keep unnecessary quantities of spare parts in storage just in case a blade fails. 

Support from MISTRAS Group

Sensoria™ helps to indicate the need for additional inspection, maintenance, or repair work. When wind site operators need to supplement their on-site teams with more manpower, they have the option to request MISTRAS' highly-trained and certified rope access technicians and drone pilots through Sensoria™ Dispatch to alleviate detected damages and get turbines back to normal operating conditions.

Download the eGuide: How to Drive Operational Excellence Through Blade Management

Visit the Sensoria™ website and download the eGuide to discover how effective blade management drives operational excellence.