Wind Turbine Blade Deflection Sensing Using Blade-Mounted Ultrawideband Antennas

Wind turbine blade deflection sensing system using ultrawideband radio links propagating along the blade is presented. Special focus is given to the challenges related to the multipath propagation along the blade. Results of electromagnetic modeling of the wireless link budget for deflected blades are presented. Some aspects of the sensing system that are different from a typical wireless communication link are discussed.