This paper proposes a novel methodology to assess and quantify the risk of surface defects on wind turbine blades. Leveraging advanced image processing and analysis techniques
the approach not only detects surface defects but also accurately evaluates their potential impacts on wind turbine operation
providing an effective tool for condition-based maintenance. A field-collected dataset of wind turbine blade surface defect images was constructed in this paper to verify the feasibility of this method. Experimental results show that for crack defects
the error range in the test set was 0.01 m to 0.21 m (0.43% to 23.81%)
with an average relative error of 7.24%. For the blade leading edge erosion
the error range was 0.00192 m to 0.0294 m (1.27% to 30.18%)
with an average relative error of 13.06%. For the paint peeling
the error range was 0.00320 m to 0.01729 m (0.65% to 22.81%)
with an average relative error of 9.44%. These results indicate that the proposed method is effective for practical applications.
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