Abstract
Marine Current Turbines (MCTs) play a critical role in converting the kinetic energy of water into electricity. However, due to the influence of marine organisms, marine current equipment often experiences imbalance faults. Additionally, affected by the underwater environment, the fault characteristics are submerged in disturbances such as waves and turbulence. Against the background of the above problems, this article proposes a fault detection strategy based on a Generalized Likelihood Ratio Test (GLRT) detector. Firstly, a simulation model of the MCT system is established to obtain prior knowledge. Then, combining the Matrix Pencil Method (MPM) for calculating instantaneous frequency, imbalance fault metrics are selected based on the proposed GLRT detector. At the end, the marine current turbine experimental platform is established, which can simulate imbalanced faults and environmental disturbances, helping to verify the effectiveness of the proposed strategy. The experimental results indicate that the proposed strategy can detect imbalanced faults in complex underwater environments. Imbalance faults are the main manifestation of blade attachments. Thus, it is very meaningful to accomplish fault detection in order to maintain the working order of the MCT system.