The number of wind turbines in Europe has been rising for years and so have the demands made on their operating reliability and safety: These wind turbines will be subject to aging and, hence, will grow more susceptible to failure. Reliability is even more important in offshore wind turbines since their sites are difficult to access. In addition, corrosion and waves have a great impact their on their operating safety.

Repair and maintenance work as well as down-times make up a major share in operating cost which need to be minimised. With this backdrop, the 1st International VDI Conference "Reliability and Failure Analysis of Wind Turbines" to held in Hamburg, Germany, on 20 and 21 March 2013 will be the meeting platform for international experts to discuss effective methods for the analysis of structural failure.

VDI Wissensforum is the organiser supported by the scientific coverage and technological expertise provided by its conference president Christoph Römling from the company GL Garad Hassan.

This two-day conference will focus on structural failure analysis performed in wind turbines. Guillaume Badard from The Timken Company, Ralf Hambrecht from the company REpower and Andrew Smith from the company Wikov Industry will address feasible options how to increase the reliability of transmissions. Experts from HMS and the Spanish National Research Council will talk about damage patterns and types in rotor blades and their early detection.

Experts from the companies GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies and Gamesa will show how to identify structural damage as early as possible by means of monitoring systems for the main components so as to prolong their service lives and to reduce cost.

Expert presenters will also come from the Renk company, the Delft University of Technology and from the University of Southampton.

The programme will also present feasible solutions to deal with damage occurring in offshore plants exposed to special loads. Speakers from the companies Hempel and Cotes A/S will demonstrate how to protect offshore installations from the impacts of corrosion and moisture.

Source: VDI Wissensforum GmbH