The wind turbine as a large-scale system is an aeroelastic mechanical system that converts kinetic wind energy into electrical power. Performance limitations of wind turbines in dealing with some problems such as vibration, corrosion and temperature changes, e.g. in the motors, sensors, blades and gearbox could affect the production capability and may cause remarkable downtime of the entire system. Therefore, considering the high cost of wind-turbine maintenance, increasing the reliability of wind-turbine operation becomes a key point for wind-farm operators. In other words, the maintenance strategy and reliability of the wind turbine are depending on each other, which leads us to the reliability-centred maintenance (RCM) and implementing an optimized maintenance program for wind turbines. Over the last few years, many researches were carried out by academicians or practitioners on implementation of RCM for wind turbines and the literature of this work is condensed by developing algorithms or methodologies in theory or practical aspects for dealing with structural load analysis or health monitoring of wind turbines for diagnostics or prognostics of various faults or possible failures in the system. This chapter gives an overview of the current book devoted to recent results in the field of structural control and fault detection of wind turbines. A review on the organization of the book and main contributions of each chapter is presented in detail.

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Inspec keywords: wind turbines; mechanical variables control; maintenance engineering; power generation control; fault diagnosis; offshore installations; condition monitoring

Other keywords: wind-farm; health monitoring; reliability-centred maintenance; Fault Detection; Wind Turbine Systems; optimized maintenance program; diagnostics; structural control; prognostics; structural load analysis

Subjects: Plant engineering, maintenance and safety; Mechanical variables control; Wind power plants; Control technology and theory (production); Inspection and quality control; Power and plant engineering (mechanical engineering); Control of electric power systems; Maintenance and reliability