Merrily spins as laser looks on

摘要

Lasers could slash wind-turbine power outages, say engineers at Chonbuk National University in South Korea. If the bolts securing turbine blades to a rotor begin to loosen, or blade mass is lost due to a lightning strike, a blade can strike the turbine tower and fall off. But monitoring for when a blade starts to go out of alignment is expensive as it involves peppering each blade with strain sensors.