ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Jul 26, 2006 -- UPI

 

U.S. government scientists say they have developed a device to help them determine the efficiency and health of wind turbines.

The U.S. Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories says it developed the Accurate Time Linked Data Acquisition System, or ATLAS II, to help engineers understand how well a wind turbine used to generate electricity is performing.

Housed in an environmentally protected aluminum box, ATLAS II is capable of sampling a large number of signals at once to characterize the inflow, the operational state, and the structural response of a wind turbine.

Scientists at Sandia -- a National Nuclear Security Administration facility located at Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, N.M. -- say the device is small, highly reliable, can operate continuously, uses off-the-shelf components, and has lightning protection on all channels.

"The system provides us with sufficient data to help us understand how our turbine blade designs perform in real-world conditions, allowing us to improve on the original design and our design codes," said Jose Zayas, the Sandia project leader who has been working on ATLAS II since its inception in 1999.

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