Integrated Approach Using Condition Monitoring and Modeling to Investigate Wind Turbine Gearbox Design: Preprint
Vibration-based condition monitoring (CM) of geared utility-scale turbine drivetrains has been used by the wind industry to help improve operation and maintenance (O&M) practices, increase turbine availability, and reduce O&M cost. This study is a new endeavor that integrates the vibration-based CM technique with wind turbine gearbox modeling to investigate various gearbox design options. A teamof researchers performed vibration-based CM measurements on a damaged wind turbine gearbox with a classic configuration, (i.e., one planetary stage and two parallel stages). We observed that the acceleration amplitudes around the first-order sidebands of the intermediate stage gear set meshing frequency were much lower than that measured at the high-speed gear set, and similar difference wasalso observed in a healthy gearbox. One factor for a reduction at the intermediate stage gear set is hypothesized to be the soft sun-spline configuration in the test gearbox. To evaluate this hypothesis, a multibody dynamic model of the healthy test gearbox was first developed and validated. Relative percent difference of the first-order sidebands--of the high-speed and intermediate stagegear-meshing frequencies--in the soft and the rigid sun spline configurations were compared. The results verified that the soft sun-spline configuration can reduce the sidebands of the intermediate stage gear set and also the locating bearing loads. The study demonstrates that combining vibration-based CM with appropriate modeling can provide insights for evaluating different wind turbinegearbox design options.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Wind Power Technologies Office
- OSTI ID:
- 1214967
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/CP-5000-60978
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: ASME Turbo Expo 2015: Turbine Technical Conference and Exposition, 15-19 June 2015, Montreal, Canada
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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