A comparison of digitalisation of structural monitoring of wind turbines and bridges
Until now, digitalisation in civil engineering has been mainly occurred with regard to the planning processes. In the other life cycle phases of structures, such as construction, operation and dismantling digitalisation has taken place only sporadically, or not at all. However, especially for the operation phase digital technologies such as drone flights with several optical sensors and monitoring systems are available, which improve the efficiency of the maintenance management. These capabilities are only applied rarely in civil engineering. The situation is quite different in the wind industry: Here, intelligent monitoring systems are inherent part of maintenance strategies and drone flights are increasingly becoming a substantial part of inspection concepts. In this paper, six aspects of digital technologies are discussed in terms of possible applications for wind turbines and bridges. In addition, opportunities and risks for the technology transfer are illustrated.