Background and Purpose of the Book

The economic significance of wind energy sources has increased profoundly over the last two decades. Wind energy assets, mainly in the form of wind turbines, have become an important part of the global economy with their net worth value exceeding several hundreds of billions of Euros. Investments in renewable energy are expected to continue to grow until at least 2030, before beginning to stabilise.

Wind energy assets are complex systems with several critical components. Therefore, it is of paramount importance that they are inspected and maintained adequately in order to ensure their high availability and uninterrupted operation. Unexpected failures and faults can result in the underperformance of a particular renewable energy project which may compromise its financial success and endanger future investment. Therefore,  the wind energy industry requires reliable maintenance management to ensure the operations of the engines, components, structures, etc., to guarantee the energy supply to industry and society. Any failure, i.e., termination of the ability of an item to perform a required function, generates downtimes, costs, risks for the workers, etc. 

The advances in information and communication systems, together with the technologies, lead the industry to incorporate new condition monitoring systems and non-destructive techniques. They require also advanced analytics in order to format, save, and analyse the signals and information, from qualitatively and quantitative points of view.

In order to reduce the failures occurrence probability, a correct maintenance task is required. British Standard, BS EN-13306:2017 defines maintenance as “managerial actions during the life cycle of an item intended to retain it in, or restore it to, a state in which it can perform the required function. Technical maintenance actions include observation and analyses of the item state (e.g., inspection, monitoring, testing, diagnosis, prognosis, etc.) and active maintenance actions (e.g., repair, refurbishment).” The correct maintenance support to a maintenance organization to carry out the correct tasks is called maintenance supportability.

Non-destructive testing (NDT) and condition monitoring should be considered as an integral part of the overall operation of any wind energy project ensuring its reliable and safe operation and enabling maintenance actions to be carried out effectively and efficiently resulting in significant financial savings for both manufacturers and operators. This book is the first of its kind and will provide a useful insight to industrial engineers and scientists, academics and students into the possibilities that NDT and condition monitoring technologies can offer. It will also provide a useful reference to researchers working in the field

Target Audience

This book is intended for professionals in the field of engineering, information science, mathematics, economists, and researchers who wish to develop new skills in Non-Destructive Techniques (NDT), or who employ the NDT discipline as part of their work. The authors of this volume describe their original work in the area or provide material for cases and studies successfully applying the NDT discipline in real-life cases and theoretical approaches.

The book is also of interest for operators of wind energy systems, where they will find new approaches to apply to their problems to be solved, and similar cases studies to have them as reference.

Prof. Fausto Pedro Garcia Márquez

Fausto works at UCLM as Full Professor (Accredited as Full Professor from 2013), Spain, Honorary Senior Research Fellow at Birmingham University, UK, Lecturer at the Postgraduate European Institute, and he has been Senior Manager in Accenture (2013-2014). He obtained his European PhD with a maximum distinction. He has been distinguished with the prices: Runner Prize for Management Science and Engineering Management Nominated Prize (2020), and Advancement Prize (2018), First International Business Ideas Competition 2017 Award (2017); Runner (2015), Advancement (2013) and Silver (2012) by the International Society of Management Science and Engineering Management (ICMSEM); Best Paper Award in the international journal of Renewable Energy (Impact Factor 3.5) (2015).  He has published more than 150 papers (65 % ISI, 30% JCR and 92% internationals), some recognized as: “Applied Energy” (Q1, as “Best Paper 2020”), “Renewable Energy” (Q1, as “Best Paper 2014”); “ICMSEM” (as “excellent”), “Int. J. of Automation and Computing” and “IMechE Part F: J. of Rail and Rapid Transit” (most downloaded), etc. He is the author and editor of 40 books (Elsevier, Springer, Pearson, Mc-GrawHill, Intech, IGI, Marcombo, AlfaOmega,…), and 5 patents. He is Editor of 5 Int. Journals, Committee Member more than 40 Int. Conferences. He has been Principal Investigator in 4 European Projects, 6 National Projects, and more than 150 projects for Universities, Companies, etc. His main interests are: Artificial Intelligence, Maintenance, Management, Renewable Energy, Transport, Advanced Analytics, Data Science. He is being expert in the European Union in AI4People (EISMD), and ESF. He is Director of www.ingeniumgroup.eu

Prof. Mayorkinos Papaelias 

Professor Mayorkinos is a PhD in Metallurgy (University of Birmingham, UK). Mayorkinos leads the research activity in Non-Destructive Testing and Structural Health Condition Monitoring at the Birmingham Railway Centre for Research and Education, and conducts research in structural health condition monitoring of wind turbine towers, and advanced condition monitoring of wind turbine gearboxes and rotating machinery. He served as a technical consultant to TWI, ENGITEC, Innovative Technology and Science Ltd, and Instituto de Soldadura e Qualidade. He is the editor of two books on fault detection and condition monitoring, and has contributed chapters to books in fault detection and rail inspection. Mayorkinos is the chairman of the Education Committee of the International Society for Condition Monitoring of the British Institute of Non-Destructive Testing.

Dr. Valter Luiz Jantara Junior 

Dr. Valter is a postdoctoral research fellow at the school of metallurgy and materials at the University of Birmingham, UK. He obtained his PhD in 2019 having studied damage mechanics and condition monitoring of wind turbine gearbox materials. His main research interests are damage modelling, finite element analysis, failure analysis, surface engineering, condition monitoring, and advanced material characterisation. He has been distinguished with the Len Gelman Award for the best paper by a person in the early stages of their career, in the Proceedings of the First World Congress on Condition Monitoring, 2017. He is a member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining (IOM3). He is experienced in the in the following areas: electron (including FEG, EBSD, EDS) and optical microscopy; tensile and fatigue testing; tribological testing; plasma nitriding, including DC and active screen; vibration analysis; acoustic emission monitoring; and modelling of materials.

IMPORTANT DATES

Abstract Deadline:                    November 20th, 2021 

Full Chapter Deadline:             January 20th, 2022

Final Decision of the Chapters:   May 31st, 2022

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