Own your bladeFor insurers, loss adjusters, brokers, owners and operators
Blade failure investigation and root cause analysis
When a blade fails, the questions that matter commercially are why it failed, whether other blades in the fleet are likely to do the same, and who bears the cost. These are engineering questions, and they need to be answered before the contractual and legal questions can be.
A blade failure investigation establishes the sequence of events that led to the damage and separates the initiating cause from its consequences. We work from whatever evidence is available:
- inspection imagery and drone footage
- repair and maintenance records
- SCADA and load data
- manufacturing and quality documentation
- the blade design basis
- the failed structure itself, where it can be examined
The central question is whether the failure is an isolated event or a serial defect. An isolated event is usually dealt with as a single claim. A serial defect is an exposure across the fleet, and it changes the position of every party: the owner faces repeated downtime, the insurer repeated claims, and the manufacturer a warranty and liability question. Distinguishing between the two requires an understanding of how blades are designed, laminated and tested, not only of how they appear once broken.
Our conclusions are based on the structure and the evidence, and they are written to withstand examination by another expert.
Common questions
- What is root cause analysis of a wind turbine blade failure?
- It is a structured engineering investigation that identifies why a blade failed, rather than only describing the damage. It traces the failure back through the structure and the blade history to the initiating cause, and states whether that cause is likely to be present in other blades of the same type.
- Can you tell whether a blade failure is a serial defect?
- Often, yes. A serial defect leaves a repeatable signature: the same location, the same laminate detail, the same load path, the same manufacturing step. Establishing it needs the failed structure or its documentation compared against the design basis and, where available, evidence from other blades in the fleet.
- Do you work for insurers as well as owners?
- Yes. Apex Wind is independent of every turbine and blade manufacturer: no OEM owns us, partners with us or pays us for a referral. We sell no repairs, retrofits or hardware and take no share of the work a finding leads to, so an investigation is not a route to selling you anything. Before accepting an engagement we disclose any existing client relationship, and any interest of our own, in a party whose work it would assess, and where both parties in a dispute approach us we say so and decline the second instruction.