Report of the Condition of a General Electric Transportation Systems Gearbox

Technical Report · Wed Apr 01 04:00:00 EDT 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1659805· OSTI ID:1659805

Keller, Jonathan ^[1]; Michaud, Mark ^[2]; Lambert, Scott ^[1]

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1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
2. REM Surface Engineering, Southington, CT (United States)

Wind power plant operations and maintenance (O&M) costs remain an appreciable contributor to the overall cost of wind energy. Premature of wind turbine gearboxes failures are often a result of abrasive wear, micropitting, scuffing, white-etch cracks, and macropitting issues. Micropitting is a fatigue phenomenon that occurs in Hertzian contacts in both gears and rolling-element bearings that operate in mixed or micro elastohydrodynamic lubrication regimes. Micropitting is influenced by and manifests itself in many different ways depending on operating conditions such as load, speed and operating temperature, and on factors such as gear geometry and accuracy, tooth flank roughness, percentage of tooth sliding, and lubricant composition. Despite much research by many investigators, micropitting remains complex, unpredictable, and difficult to control and remains a problem in wind turbine gearboxes. The purpose of this report is to document and describe the micropitting damage observed in a wind turbine gearbox, thereby facilitating further analysis and examination in future reports.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Wind Energy Technologies Office
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1659805
• Report Number(s): NREL/TP-5000-76004; MainId:6007; UUID:1a5c6b18-be46-ea11-9c31-ac162d87dfe5; MainAdminID:13395
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

17 WIND ENERGY
42 ENGINEERING
wind energy
wind power plants