Review on Sensor fault detection and isolation for wind turbines based on subspace identification

and Kalman filter techniques Xiukun Wei1,∗,†, Michel Verhaegen1 and Tim van Engelen2

Sensor fault detection and isolation for wind turbines is an important task for ensuring the reliable
and efficient operation of these systems. There are several approaches that can be used for Sensor
fault detection and isolation in wind turbines, including subspace identification and Kalman filter
techniques.

The paper aims on the detection of blade root moment sensor faults and isolation issue for three-
bladed wind turbines with horizontal axis (HAWT). Strain gauge sensors are commonly used in the
wind turbine field. However, its life time is normally short compared with that of other sensors.
Major reasons that cause higher failure rates are strain in the blades is rather high, which effects
on the gauge as well as the bonding. The harsh environmental factors, such as lighting, salty spray,
moisture and corrosion, have direct effect on the bonding and wiring of the sensor. In addition,
the sensors may be easily damaged during maintenance of turbines. Sensor failures lead to wrong
behaviour of the individual pitch control system. Therefore, fault detection of blade moment
sensors is extremely important.

Detection techniques for both addictive and multiplicative faults were presented. These
techniques utilize the residuals of Kalman filters. Here the residual is the difference between a
sensor output on a time point k and the prediction for the measured, or sensored output signal on
k based on the sensor output values on k-1, k-2, … These residuals have the agreeable property of
being white noise with a more or less constant intensity when NO sensor fails. Any observed
deviation that is significant from these noise properties can be used as an indicator of sensor failure.

Addictive faults are detected from mean value changes of residuals, based on a generalized
likelihood ratio test (GLRT). In each time point, this test yields the upper limit for a likelihood ratio,
viz. the ratio between the probabilities of two suppositions on a sensor set: a low value of the ratio;s
upper limit implies NO additive fault. Multiplicative faults are detected from the variance change of
the residuals via a so-called energy detector (ED).

The faults modelling considered in this paper are addictive fault, multiplicative fault, sensor
output stuck on a fixed value and slow drifting fault. Residual generation is achieved using dual
Kalman filters. Mean value change detection algorithm, CUSUM LS filter, GLRT for abrupt change
detection and the ED for variance change detection is derived for the specific application.

Monitoring the mean value change or variance change of measured noise is used to detect in which
pair a fault has occurred (dual redundancy sensors). Here we assume that only one sensor fault
occurs each time. Meanwhile, the sensor set in which a fault has occurred can be detected from the
changes of the residuals of the two parallel Kalman filters by the CUSUM, GLRT and ED. Observer-
based fault detection methods are normally slower than GLR test. The challenging task of fault
isolation is perfectly solved by introducing the dual Kalman filters in the proposed approach. Further,
the slow drifting faults and multiplicative faults can be detected and isolated successfully by the
preposed method in light of the CUSUM test and the ED.

Sensor fault diagnosis method based on mean observation is fitting well for abrupt jump addictive
fault detection, the slow drifting addictive fault and the output stuck addictive fault. Preposed
GLRT fives a good estimation of the time instance for abrupt jump fault. Furthermore, output
stuck faults can be fairly well detected with the preposed GLRT while it is expected that a modified
GLRT enables much better detection of similar faults. While Variance change method is suitable
for detection of multiplicative faults.
So, the Proposed approach has the many advantageous such as fast detection and isolation for
abrupt faults and capable to handle multiplicative faults for the wind turbine systems by integrating
other techniques such as subspace identification techniques, CUSUM, GLRT, Kalman filters and
energy test techniques together.

Extending the current results to a large working region or for a full region of the wind turbine system
and reducing the modelling error gives better ideas for fault diagnosis.