Management of Mechanical Vibration and Temperature in Small Wind Turbines Using Zigbee Wireless Network

This paper presents the development of a methodology to manage the mechanic vibration and temperature from Small Wind Turbine (SWT). The objective with this research is propose a new diagnostic and protection tool through analysis and monitoring signals of vibration and temperature from wind turbines, aiming predict a need of preventive maintenance and mostly avoids catastrophic failures. For this feature the system will be composed of a Triple Axis accelerometer who will identify vibration, thermocouples to identify the temperatures at critical points of wind turbine, a microcontroller hardware which will make acquisition and processing of signals from sensors and finally a wireless transmission system using technology ZigBee. The post processing is performed remotely through a computer that receives the data submitted via wireless network presenting them to the user via graphical interface. The software of User friendly interface will have the functionality plus online display of received data also the possibility of storing and reporting data rates of vibration and temperature obtained during monitoring. Finally featuring the prototype of the hardware and software as well as some results obtained in experimental scale.