L. Cheng

Profile

Lu Cheng obtained the Degree of Engineer in June 2015 at Taiyuan University of Technology in China. In July 2018, she obtained the MSc degree in Structural Engineering at Dalian University of Technology in China. The thesis topic was: ‘Compressive behavior of CFRP-steel confined concrete-encased stub column with high-strength concrete’. in October 2018, she joined the section of Steel and Composite Structures at TU Delft as s PhD candidate working on the topic of ‘Structural health monitoring of steel structures’.

Research

Lu is involved in the OFWEC2 project, namely Offshore Wedge Connection Project Phase 2, organized by the company of C1 Connections B.V. A novel connection method for wind turbines has been invented by the company. Lu aims to assess the fatigue performance of the innovative connection by structural health monitoring.

In-situ connections of supporting structures for wind turbines are exposed to a harsh environment, the maintenance fee is expensive if damage happens. Therefore, the connections are very important to guarantee the structural integrity, and in reducing the total costs of the structure. As a competitive alternative to the conventional ring flange connections, an innovative connection developed by C1 Connection B.V. has been proposed for use in wind turbine structures (https://c1connections.com/). To ensure the reliability of the wedge connection, it is of paramount importance to have an effective method for early fatigue crack detection of the innovative connection. The recent development of Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) technique opens up new opportunities to ensure the integrity of structures, which enables non-invasive and continuous monitoring of structures. Therefore, the main purpose of this research is to extend the application and improve the reliability of the specific NDT technique for damage assessment of the innovative connections used in wind turbines.

Partners

Partners: C1 Connections B.V. and TU Delft.

TU Delft research staff involved: Prof. Milan Veljkovic, Dr. Roger Groves (Faculty of Aerospace Engineering), Lu Cheng

Cheng L, Xin H, Groves R M, et al. Acoustic emission source location using Lamb wave propagation simulation and artificial neural network for I-shaped steel girder[J]. Construction and Building Materials, 2021, 273: 121706.

www.researchgate.net/profile/Lu-Cheng-19