Figure 9. The experimental setup of a wind turbine rotor blade
under cyclic loading to trigger damage growth in the structure [25].
The damage is visually inspected, and their images are used in the
current study to be mapped on a visual digital twin.
Images of the areas with damages can be regularly mapped to a CAD model
of the wind blade and the updated digital twin can be used to accurately
estimate the damage progression. In the final version of the tool the
image capturing of the damage, mapping of the images onto the model and
finally the estimation of the sizes of the defects will be done
automatically. Figure 10 (a) depicts a segment of the wind blade in
figure 9 after the fatigue experiment.
Using the mapping algorithms presented in section 4 four color images of
these delamination areas have been mapped onto the blade CAD model. The
red, green blue color information for each of the image pixels are here
used in the mapping process. From this digital twin model, the damage
growth can be calculated in a virtual environment, allowing regular and
efficient assessment of structural integrity of the physical twin by
updating the digital twin with new damage inspection images.