Experimental results on the influence of temperature and humidity on FMCW radar signals at 60 GHz

This paper presents experimental studies on the influence of temperature and humidity on radar signals reflected by a glass-fibre reinforced plastic (GFRP) plate. These ambient conditions have great impact on structural health monitoring applications in changing environments. In this work, we focus on structural health monitoring of wind turbine blades. To estimate these impacts, common weather conditions are simulated inside a climate chamber and measured with two different Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar systems. The resulting varying signals will be shown and considerations on compensation methods will be presented.