Life-cycle Engineering Asset Management
International research and engineering solutions company TWI Ltd has set its sights on harnessing digital twin technology to transform the process of monitoring and maintaining offshore wind turbines. TWI has built up its knowledge in the structural health and condition monitoring of wind turbines in recent years as a result of its participation in a number of European and UK collaborative projects, including CMSWind, WTBMonitor and TOWERPOWER.
By Ángela Angulo, Senior Project Leader, TWI Ltd, UK
The collective methodology of this work sought to address each component of the wind turbine in turn, first determining potential problems that could arise (e.g. the blade developing cracks or the tower corroding), then subsequently developing new monitoring solutions to mitigate part failure. 
The application of digital twin technology seeks to build on this approach by replicating all the constituent components of the wind turbine into a single digital model, thereby enabling real-time monitoring of the turbine’s entire structural condition.
