Planetary gear load sharing of wind turbine drivetrains subjected to non‐torque loads

An analytical formulation was developed to estimate the load‐sharing and planetary loads of a three‐point suspension wind turbine drivetrain considering the effects of non‐torque loads, gravity and bearing clearance. A three‐dimensional dynamic drivetrain model that includes mesh stiffness variation, tooth modifications and gearbox housing flexibility was also established to investigate gear tooth load distribution and non‐linear tooth and bearing contact of the planetary gears. These models were validated with experimental data from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's Gearbox Reliability Collaborative. Non‐torque loads and gravity induce fundamental excitations in the rotating carrier frame, which can increase gearbox loads and disturb load sharing. Clearance in the carrier bearings reduces the bearing stiffness significantly. This increases the amount of pitching moment transmitted from the rotor to the gear meshes and disturbs the planetary load share, thereby resulting in edge loading. Edge loading increases the likelihood of tooth pitting and planet‐bearing fatigue, leading to reduced gearbox life. Additionally, at low‐input torque, the planet‐bearing loads are often less than the minimum recommended load and thus susceptible to skidding. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improving wind turbine drivetrain designs to minimize the impacts of non‐torque loads

Non‐torque loads induced by the wind turbine rotor overhang weight and aerodynamic forces can greatly affect drivetrain loads and responses. If not addressed properly, these loads can result in a decrease in gearbox component life. This work uses analytical modeling, computational modeling and experimental approaches to evaluate two distinct drivetrain designs that minimize the effects of non‐torque loads on gearbox reliability: a modified three‐point suspension drivetrain studied by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Gearbox Reliability Collaborative (GRC) and the Pure Torque® drivetrain developed by Alstom. In the original GRC drivetrain, the unequal planetary load distribution and sharing were present and they can lead to gear tooth pitting and reduce the lives of the planet bearings. The NREL GRC team modified the original design of its drivetrain by changing the rolling element bearings in the planetary gear stage. In this modified design, gearbox bearings in the planetary gear stage are anticipated to transmit non‐torque loads directly to the gearbox housing rather than the gears. Alstom's Pure Torque drivetrain has a hub support configuration that transmits non‐torque loads directly into the tower rather than through the gearbox as in other design approaches. An analytical model of Alstom's Pure Torque drivetrain provides insight into the relationships among turbine component weights, aerodynamic forces and the resulting drivetrain loads. In Alstom's Pure Torque drivetrain, main shaft bending loads are orders of magnitude lower than the rated torque and hardly affected by wind speed, gusts or turbine operations. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Load sharing behavior analysis method of wind turbine gearbox in consideration of multiple-errors

Conducting a further analysis on loading sharing among compound planetary gear system in wind turbine gearbox, and making a meshing error analysis on the eccentricity error, gear thickness error, base pitch error, assembly error, and bearing error of wind turbine gearbox respectively. In view of the floating meshing error resulting from meshing clearance variation caused by the simultaneous floating of all gears, this paper establishes a refined mathematical model of two-stage power split loading sharing coefficient calculation in consideration of multiple errors. Also obtains the regular curves of the load sharing coefficient and floating orbits of center gears, and conducts a load sharing coefficient test experiment of compound planetary gear system to verify the research results, which can provide scientific theory evidence for proper tolerance distribution and control in design and process.     

Effects of floating sun gear in a wind turbine's planetary gearbox with geometrical imperfections

This paper addresses the effect of gear geometrical errors in wind turbine planetary gearboxes with a floating sun gear. Numerical simulations and experiments are employed throughout the study. A National Renewable Energy Laboratory 750 kW gearbox is modelled in a multibody environment and verified using the experimental data obtained from a dynamometer test. The gear geometrical errors, which are both assembly dependent and assembly independent, are described, and planet‐pin misalignment and eccentricity are selected as the two most influential and key errors for case studies. Various load cases involving errors in the floating and non‐floating sun gear designs are simulated, and the planet‐bearing reactions, gear vibrations, gear mesh loads and bearing fatigue lives are compared. All tests and simulations are performed at the rated wind speed. For errorless gears, the non‐floating sun gear design performs better in terms of gear load variation, whereas the upwind planet bearing has more damage. In the floating sun gear scenario, the planet misalignment is neutralized by changing the sun motion pattern and the planet gear's elastic deformation. The effects of gear profile modifications are also evaluated, revealing that profile modifications such as crowning improve the effects of misalignment. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sources of time‐varying contact stress and misalignments in wind turbine planetary sets

Recent data shows that 90% of large wind turbines include a gearbox, and industry forecasts expect this figure to remain relatively stable. With global annual volumes (2009) of around 18,600 units, the quality, cost and performance of gearboxes is of paramount importance to the wind sector. The industry has been focusing some attention on gearbox reliability, as demonstrated by a growth in the number of specific seminars and collaborative programs on this topic. One aspect that needs to be brought to an industry‐wide forum is the understanding of the complexity of bearing design in the gearbox and the careful attention that needs to be paid to ensure a reliable gearbox design. This paper seeks to address this issue by clear demonstration of design issues using a model of the gearbox from the National Renewable Energy Lab's Gearbox Reliability Collaborative. Detailed models are presented with focus on determining the quality of the function of the planetary gear stages. Key design drivers are discussed such as the quality of alignment at the gears and bearings and the loads and stresses seen on these components. Under a design load case with a significant rotor off‐axis moment the stresses in the planet gears and bearings are investigated. It is shown how the misalignment of the planet pins varies with the rotation of the planetary set and how subsequently time‐varying contact stresses and load distributions occur in the planet gears and bearings. These factors strongly influence the fatigue life of the gearbox components as well as the level of vibration. Design tools are then used to demonstrate how small variations in the clearances of the planet carrier bearings can have a big effect on the quality of the design. Numerical studies show where optimal clearance settings lie and how the misalignment of the planetary set can be improved. Furthermore, a demonstration is made of how redesign of the bearing arrangement and subsequent optimization of the planet tooth geometry further improves the misalignment and results in significantly reduced time‐varying contact stresses, better load distribution and reduced vibration. It is illustrated that small clearances, such as in the carrier bearings, can have a large effect on the performance of the design and a study shows how to identify and reduce time‐varying misalignment and contact stresses resulting in lower vibration, lower fatigue and a more reliable product. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On design,modelling, and analysis of a 10‐MW medium‐speed drivetrain for offshore wind turbines

The design of a medium‐speed drivetrain for the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) 10‐MW reference offshore wind turbine is presented. A four‐point support drivetrain layout that is equipped with a gearbox with two planetary stages and one parallel stage is proposed. Then, the drivetrain components are designed based on design loads and criteria that are recommended in relevant international standards. Finally, an optimized drivetrain model is obtained via an iterative design process that minimizes the weight and volume. A high‐fidelity numerical model is established via the multibody system approach. Then, the developed drivetrain model is compared with the simplified model that was proposed by DTU, and the two models agree well. In addition, a drivetrain resonance evaluation is conducted based on the Campbell diagrams and the modal energy distribution. Detailed parameters for the drivetrain design and dynamic modelling are provided to support the reproduction of the drivetrain model. A decoupled approach, which consists of global aero‐hydro‐servo‐elastic analysis and local drivetrain analysis, is used to determine the drivetrain dynamic response. The 20‐year fatigue damages of gears and bearings are calculated based on the stress or load duration distributions, the Palmgren‐Miner linear accumulative damage hypothesis, and long‐term environmental condition distributions. Then, an inspection priority map is established based on the failure ranking of the drivetrain components, which supports drivetrain inspection and maintenance assessment and further model optimization. The detailed modelling of the baseline drivetrain model provides a basis for benchmark studies and support for future research on multimegawatt offshore wind turbines.     

考虑齿圈柔性的风电行星轮系动态啮合特性研究

针对集中参数法难以考虑齿圈柔性而有限元法计算量大的问题,以风电行星轮系为研究对象在集中参数/有限元混合法基础上提出一种揭示内啮合齿轮副延长啮合现象的分析方法。首先采用集中参数法建立风电行星轮系的动力学模型,并求解获得动态啮合力;随后,运用有限元法建立行星轮系内啮合齿轮副的有限元模型,并开展静态接触分析从而获得内啮合齿轮副各啮合位置发生多齿啮合时的变形阈值;最后,将集中参数模型获得的动态啮合力施加在内齿圈有限元模型上计算出内齿圈的动态响应,并结合发生多齿啮合时的变形阈值,从而揭示在不同负载和支撑数量下内齿圈上多齿啮合的分布区域,获得接触应力和齿根应力,分析啮合齿对数量改变前后对应力的影响。结果表明：考虑齿轮柔性后,内啮合齿轮副会出现除理论啮合齿对外其他齿对相接触的现象;随着负载扭矩的增大,内齿圈上三齿啮合首先发生在支撑两侧,随后三齿啮合发生区域不断增加;当行星轮与内齿圈间的啮合由理论两齿啮合变为三齿啮合时,其齿面接触应力和齿根应力小于其在相同时刻只计入两齿啮合时的应力值。     

Identification of loading conditions resulting in roller slippage in gearbox bearings of large wind turbines

The dynamic loads on the rollers inside the bearings of large wind turbine gearboxes operating under transient conditions are presented with a focus on identifying conditions leading to slippage of rollers. The methodology was developed using a multi‐body model of the drivetrain coupled with aeroelastic simulations of the wind turbine system. A 5 MW reference wind turbine is considered for which a three‐stage planetary gearbox is designed on the basis of upscaling of an actual 750 kW gearbox unit. Multi‐body dynamic simulations are run using the ADAMS software using a detailed model of the gearbox planetary bearings to investigate transient loads inside the planet bearing. It was found that assembly and pre‐loading conditions have significant influence on the bearing's operation. Also, the load distribution in the gearbox bearings strongly depends on wind turbine operation. Wind turbine start‐up and shut‐down under normal conditions are shown to induce roller slippage, as characterized by loss of contacts and impacts between rollers and raceways. The roller impacts occur under reduced initial pre‐load on opposite sides of the load zone followed by stress variation, which can be one of the potential reasons leading to wear and premature bearing failures. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

考虑冲刷的单桩式海上风力机动力响应研究

为了研究复杂海洋环境下桩周冲刷对海上风力机动力响应的影响,以美国可再生能源实验室5 MW海上风力机为研究对象,建立风力机塔架-单桩-土体有限元模型,计入风浪和地震荷载对冲刷情况下的单桩式海上风力机进行动力响应研究。对比分析不同冲刷深度以及冲刷坡角对风力机系统固有频率和动力响应的影响。研究表明：当冲刷深度增加到二倍桩径时,风力机一阶固有频率降低至转子1P频率附近,容易引起共振;在风浪荷载以及风浪、地震联合荷载作用下,冲刷坡角不变,风力机最大位移与弯矩随着冲刷深度增加而增大,疏松土质条件下的增量大于紧密土;保持冲刷深度不变,冲刷坡角的变化对风力机动力响应影响较小。     

混合弹流润滑条件下风电行星直齿轮内啮合动态特性分析

当大型风力发电机在低速重载条件时,齿轮在混合弹流润滑条件下的啮合动态特性难以分析.针对该问题提出齿面接触并联刚度模型,建立行星齿轮啮合动力学模型.基于粗糙峰承载平衡理论,将承载因子理论引入刚度模型中,并与混合弹流润滑理论相结合,可得出计算齿面油膜刚度的新公式,为齿轮混合弹流润滑问题研究提供参考.通过计算结果,可认为在混...     

风冰联合作用下大型单桩海上风电机组动力特性

考虑风荷载与冰荷载联合作用对大型单桩海上风电机组的影响,基于IEA 15 MW超大型单桩海上风电机组,采用一体化分析软件Openfast建立风冰联合作用下大型单桩耦合数值模型,开展超大型单桩海上风电机组在风冰联合作用下的动力响应分析。探究不同加载时长、冰激振动模型以及疲劳损伤组合方法对大型单桩海上风电机组的动力响应规律。计算结果显示：不同冰载数值计算模型塔基与泥面线载荷的计算结果差别较大,泥面线受冰荷载影响较大,同时泥面线位置较塔基位置承受更大的疲劳损伤,应重点关注。采用不同的荷载组合方向进行泥面线与塔基位置的疲劳损伤估计时,计算结果较风冰联合作用下疲劳损伤相对误差较大。因此,宜采用风冰联合加载的方法进行大型单桩海上风电机组的动力响应模拟,进而开展超大型单桩海上风电机组的疲劳损伤估计。     

风电机组传动链典型故障特征提取方法

为解决风电机组传动链易发生故障的问题,文章阐述了风电机组齿轮箱特征频率的计算方法和基于振动信号分析的故障特征提取方法。结合实际情况,以行星级齿轮磨损、中间轴小齿轮崩齿、高速轴齿轮崩齿和发电机轴承电腐蚀等典型故障为例,通过齿轮箱特征频率和传动链典型故障振动信号基本特征分析,可较好地完成故障识别。结果表明,采用经典信号处理方法能对上述典型故障进行特征提取,验证了经典方法对单一、明显故障特征提取的有效性,为深入开展传动链故障特征提取方法研究奠定了基础,为风电机组故障检修维护提供了技术支撑。     

Residual signal feature extraction for gearbox planetary stage fault detection

Faults in planetary gears and related bearings, e.g. planet bearings and planet carrier bearings, pose inherent difficulties on their accurate and consistent detection associated mainly to the low energy in slow rotating stages and the operating complexity of planetary gearboxes. In this work, statistical features measuring the signal energy and Gaussianity are calculated from the residual signals between each pair from the first to the fifth tooth mesh frequency of the meshing process in a multi‐stage wind turbine gearbox. The suggested algorithm includes resampling from time to angular domain, identification of the expected spectral signature for proper residual signal calculation and filtering of any frequency component not related to the planetary stage. Two field cases of planet carrier bearing defect and planet wheel spalling are presented and discussed, showing the efficiency of the followed approach and the possibility of characterizing a fault as localized or distributed. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Load flow analysis for variable speed offshore wind farms

A serial AC?DC integrated load flow algorithm for variable speed offshore wind farms is proposed. It divides the electrical system of a wind farm into several local networks, and different load flow methods are used for these local networks sequentially. This method is fast, more accurate, and many factors such as the different wind farm configurations, the control of wind turbines and the power losses of pulse width modulation converters are considered. The DC/DC converter model is proposed and integrated into load flow algorithm by modifying the Jacobian matrix. Two iterative methods are proposed and integrated into the load flow algorithm: one takes into account the control strategy of converters and the other considers the power losses of converters. In addition, different types of variable speed wind turbine systems with different control methods are investigated. Finally, the method is demonstrated using an 80-MW offshore wind farm.     

Optimization of Multibrid Permanent-Magnet Wind Generator Systems

This paper investigates the cost-effective ranges of gearbox ratios and power ratings of multibrid permanent-magnet (PM) wind generator systems by using a design optimization method. First, the analytical model of a multibrid wind turbine concept consisting of a single-stage gearbox and a three-phase radial-flux PM synchronous generator with a back-to-back power converter is presented. The design optimization is adopted with a genetic algorithm for minimizing generator system cost. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed electromagnetic design model, the optimization results of a 500-kW direct-drive PM generator and a 1.5-MW multibrid PM generator with various gear ratios are, respectively, compared with those from other methods. Then, the optimal design approach is further employed for a range from 750 kW up to 10 MW. The optimization results of PM generator systems including direct-drive and multibrid wind turbine configurations are obtained, and the suitable ranges of gear ratios for different power ratings are investigated. Finally, the detailed comparisons of the most cost-effective multibrid PM generator system and the optimized direct-drive PM generator system are also presented and discussed. The comparative results have shown that the multibrid wind turbine concept appears more cost-effective than the direct-drive concept.      

Long‐term contact fatigue analysis of a planetary bearing in a land‐based wind turbine drivetrain

This paper presents an approach for performing a long‐term fatigue analysis of rolling element bearings in wind turbine gearboxes. Multilevel integrated analyses were performed using the aeroservoelastic code HAWC2, the multibody dynamics code SIMPACK, the three‐dimensional finite element code Calyx and a simplified lifetime prediction model for rolling contact fatigue. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory's 750 kW wind turbine and its planetary bearing were studied. Design load cases, including normal production, parked and transient load cases, were considered. To obtain the internal bearing load distribution, an advanced approach combining a finite element/contact mechanics model and a response surface model were used. In addition, a traditional approach, the Harris model, was also applied for comparison. The long‐term probability distribution of the bearing raceway contact pressure range was then obtained using Weibull and generalized Gamma distribution functions. Finally, we estimated the fatigue life of the bearing, discussed the differences of the methods used to obtain the bearing internal loads and analyzed the effects of the environmental conditions and load cases on the results. The Harris model may underestimate the inner raceway life by 55.7%, which can cause large load fluctuations along the raceways. The bearing fatigue life is very sensitive to the wind distribution and less affected by the transient and parked load cases. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Using transfer path analysis to assess the influence of bearings on structural vibrations of a wind turbine gearbox

Noise and vibration issues can be dealt with using several approaches. Using the source–transfer path–receiver approach, a vibration issue could be solved by attenuating the source, modifying the transfer path or by influencing the receiver. Applying this approach on a wind turbine gearbox would respectively correspond with lowering the gear excitation levels, modifying the gearbox housing or by trying to isolate the gearbox from the rest of the wind turbine. This paper uses a combination of multi‐body modelling and typical transfer path analysis (TPA) to investigate the impact of bearings on the total transfer path and the resulting vibration levels. Structural vibrations are calculated using a flexible multi‐body model of a three‐stage wind turbine gearbox. Because the high‐speed mesh is often the main source of vibrations, focus is put on the four bearings of this gear stage. The TPA method using structural vibration simulation results shows which bearing position is responsible for transmitting the highest excitation levels from the gears to the gearbox housing structure. Influences of bearing stiffness values and bearing damping values on the resulting vibration levels are investigated by means of a parameter sensitivity study and are confirmed with the results from the TPA. Because both the TPA and the parameter sensitivity analysis revealed a big influence on radial stiffness for a certain bearing, this was investigated in more detail and showed the big importance of correct axial bearing position. The main conclusions of this paper are that the total vibration behaviour of a wind turbine gearbox can be altered significantly by changing both bearing properties such as stiffness, damping and position, and bearing support stiffness. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Coupled multi-body dynamics and CFD for wind turbine simulation including explicit wind turbulence

A high fidelity approach for wind turbine aero-elastic simulations including explicit representation of the atmospheric wind turbulence is presented. The approach uses a dynamic overset computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code for the aerodynamics coupled with a multi-body dynamics (MBD) code for the motion responses to the aerodynamic loads. Mann's wind turbulence model was implemented into the CFD code as boundary and initial conditions. The wind turbulence model was validated by comparing the theoretical one-point spectrum for the three components of the velocity fluctuations, and by comparing the expected statistics from the CFD simulated wind turbulent field with the explicit wind turbulence inlet boundary from Mann model. Extensive simulations based on the proposed coupled approach were conducted with the conceptual NREL 5-MW offshore wind turbine in an increasing level of complexity, analyzing the turbine behavior as elasticity, wind shear and atmospheric wind turbulence are added to the simulations. Results are compared with the publicly available simulations results from OC3 participants, showing good agreement for the aerodynamic loads and blade tip deflections in time and frequency domains. Wind turbulence/turbine interaction was examined for the wake flow. It was found that explicit turbulence addition results in considerably increased wake diffusion. The coupled CFD/MBD approach can be extended to include multibody models of the shaft, bearings, gearbox and generator, resulting in a promising tool for wind turbine design under complex operational environments.