scholarly journals Investigation of high-speed shaft bearing loads in wind turbine gearboxes through dynamometer testing

Wind Energy ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Guo ◽  
J. Keller
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Bearing Loads

scholarly journals An Integrated Approach Using Condition Monitoring and Modeling to Investigate Wind Turbine Gearbox Design

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuangwen Sheng ◽  
Yi Guo
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Condition Monitoring ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Intermediate Stage ◽  
Wind Turbine Gearbox ◽  
First Order ◽  
Bearing Loads ◽  
Design Options ◽  
Utility Scale

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 team of 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 was also 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 stage gear-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 turbine gearbox design options.

scholarly journals Calculating loads and life-time reduction of wind turbine gearbox and generator bearings due to shaft misalignment

2020 ◽  
pp. 0309524X2091402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damian P Rommel ◽  
Dario Di Maio ◽  
Tiedo Tinga
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Analytical Method ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Life Time ◽  
Universal Joint ◽  
Wind Turbine Gearbox ◽  
Bearing Failures ◽  
Shaft Misalignment ◽  
Metal Disk ◽  
Bearing Loads

During the last two decades, wind turbine industries have faced high failure rates, downtimes and costly repairs. Gearbox and generator have contributed to this, especially, because their high speed shaft bearings have often failed. In this article, an analytical method is proposed to calculate the reaction loads of flexible connecting couplings installed between wind turbine gearbox and generator. Raction loads are determined from joint kinematics and metal disk pack deformations as well as axial and angular shaft misalignment. The calculations are executed for both flexible connecting couplings and a universal joint shaft and applied to the gearbox high speed shaft. The performance of flexible connecting couplings and universal joint shaft is compared with respect to the bearing loads and life-time of the gearbox high speed shaft. It is shown that the early, unplanned bearing failures of gearbox and generator high speed shaft can often be attributed to the flexible connecting couplings installed between gearbox and generator.

Ball bearing turbocharger vibration management: application on high speed balancer

2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 619
Author(s):  
Kostandin Gjika ◽  
Antoine Costeux ◽  
Gerry LaRue ◽  
John Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Behavior ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Internal Combustion Engines ◽  
Ball Bearing ◽  
Squeeze Film ◽  
Design And Technology ◽  
Squeeze Film Damper ◽  
Damping Coefficients ◽  
Bearing Loads ◽  
Stiffness And Damping

Today's modern internal combustion engines are increasingly focused on downsizing, high fuel efficiency and low emissions, which requires appropriate design and technology of turbocharger bearing systems. Automotive turbochargers operate faster and with strong engine excitation; vibration management is becoming a challenge and manufacturers are increasingly focusing on the design of low vibration and high-performance balancing technology. This paper discusses the synchronous vibration management of the ball bearing cartridge turbocharger on high-speed balancer and it is a continuation of papers [1–3]. In a first step, the synchronous rotordynamics behavior is identified. A prediction code is developed to calculate the static and dynamic performance of “ball bearing cartridge-squeeze film damper”. The dynamic behavior of balls is modeled by a spring with stiffness calculated from Tedric Harris formulas and the damping is considered null. The squeeze film damper model is derived from the Osborne Reynolds equation for incompressible and synchronous fluid loading; the stiffness and damping coefficients are calculated assuming that the bearing is infinitely short, and the oil film pressure is modeled as a cavitated π film model. The stiffness and damping coefficients are integrated on a rotordynamics code and the bearing loads are calculated by converging with the bearing eccentricity ratio. In a second step, a finite element structural dynamics model is built for the system “turbocharger housing-high speed balancer fixture” and validated by experimental frequency response functions. In the last step, the rotating dynamic bearing loads on the squeeze film damper are coupled with transfer functions and the vibration on the housings is predicted. The vibration response under single and multi-plane unbalances correlates very well with test data from turbocharger unbalance masters. The prediction model allows a thorough understanding of ball bearing turbocharger vibration on a high speed balancer, thus optimizing the dynamic behavior of the “turbocharger-high speed balancer” structural system for better rotordynamics performance identification and selection of the appropriate balancing process at the development stage of the turbocharger.

scholarly journals Improvement of Tilting-Pad Journal Bearing Operating Characteristics by Application of Eddy Grooves

Lubricants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
Eckhard Schüler ◽  
Olaf Berner
Keyword(s):  
High Speed ◽  
Journal Bearing ◽  
Load Capacity ◽  
Fluid Film ◽  
Operating Characteristics ◽  
Fluid Film Bearings ◽  
Tilting Pad ◽  
Bearing Load ◽  
Bearing Loads ◽  
Tilting Pad Journal Bearing

In high speed, high load fluid-film bearings, the laminar-turbulent flow transition can lead to a considerable reduction of the maximum bearing temperatures, due to a homogenization of the fluid-film temperature in radial direction. Since this phenomenon only occurs significantly in large bearings or at very high sliding speeds, means to achieve the effect at lower speeds have been investigated in the past. This paper shows an experimental investigation of this effect and how it can be used for smaller bearings by optimized eddy grooves, machined into the bearing surface. The investigations were carried out on a Miba journal bearing test rig with Ø120 mm shaft diameter at speeds between 50 m/s–110 m/s and at specific bearing loads up to 4.0 MPa. To investigate the potential of this technology, additional temperature probes were installed at the crucial position directly in the sliding surface of an up-to-date tilting pad journal bearing. The results show that the achieved surface temperature reduction with the optimized eddy grooves is significant and represents a considerable enhancement of bearing load capacity. This increase in performance opens new options for the design of bearings and related turbomachinery applications.

Aerodynamic and aeroacoustic performance investigations on modified H-rotor Darrieus wind turbine

2021 ◽  
pp. 0309524X2110039
Author(s):  
Amgad Dessoky ◽  
Thorsten Lutz ◽  
Ewald Krämer
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Cfd Simulation ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
3D Models ◽  
Power Coefficient ◽  
Design Parameters ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine ◽  
Guide Vanes

The present paper investigates the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic characteristics of the H-rotor Darrieus vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) combined with very promising energy conversion and steering technology; a fixed guide-vanes. The main scope of the current work is to enhance the aerodynamic performance and assess the noise production accomplished with such enhancement. The studies are carried out in two phases; the first phase is a parametric 2D CFD simulation employing the unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) approach to optimize the design parameters of the guide-vanes. The second phase is a 3D CFD simulation of the full turbine using a higher-order numerical scheme and a hybrid RANS/LES (DDES) method. The guide-vanes show a superior power augmentation, about 42% increase in the power coefficient at λ = 2.75, with a slightly noisy operation and completely change the signal directivity. A remarkable difference in power coefficient is observed between 2D and 3D models at the high-speed ratios stems from the 3D effect. As a result, a 3D simulation of the capped Darrieus turbine is carried out, and then a noise assessment of such configuration is assessed. The results show a 20% increase in power coefficient by using the cap, without significant change in the noise signal.

scholarly journals Development of a wind turbine gearbox virtual load sensor using multibody simulation and artificial neural networks

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baher Azzam ◽  
Ralf Schelenz ◽  
Björn Roscher ◽  
Abdul Baseer ◽  
Georg Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Time Series ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Time Series Data ◽  
Development Trend ◽  
Series Data ◽  
Ann Model ◽  
Wind Turbine Gearbox ◽  
Virtual Sensor ◽  
Artificial Neural

AbstractA current development trend in wind energy is characterized by the installation of wind turbines (WT) with increasing rated power output. Higher towers and larger rotor diameters increase rated power leading to an intensification of the load situation on the drive train and the main gearbox. However, current main gearbox condition monitoring systems (CMS) do not record the 6‑degree of freedom (6-DOF) input loads to the transmission as it is too expensive. Therefore, this investigation aims to present an approach to develop and validate a low-cost virtual sensor for measuring the input loads of a WT main gearbox. A prototype of the virtual sensor system was developed in a virtual environment using a multi-body simulation (MBS) model of a WT drivetrain and artificial neural network (ANN) models. Simulated wind fields according to IEC 61400‑1 covering a variety of wind speeds were generated and applied to a MBS model of a Vestas V52 wind turbine. The turbine contains a high-speed drivetrain with 4‑points bearing suspension, a common drivetrain configuration. The simulation was used to generate time-series data of the target and input parameters for the virtual sensor algorithm, an ANN model. After the ANN was trained using the time-series data collected from the MBS, the developed virtual sensor algorithm was tested by comparing the estimated 6‑DOF transmission input loads from the ANN to the simulated 6‑DOF transmission input loads from the MBS. The results show high potential for virtual sensing 6‑DOF wind turbine transmission input loads using the presented method.

Design and performance evaluation of vertical axis wind turbine for wind energy harvesting at railway

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hashwini Lalchand Thadani ◽  
Fadia Dyni Zaaba ◽  
Muhammad Raimi Mohammad Shahrizal ◽  
Arjun Singh Jaj A. Jaspal Singh Jaj ◽  
Yun Ii Go
Keyword(s):  
Wind Speed ◽  
Energy Harvesting ◽  
Wind Energy ◽  
Wind Turbine ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Speed Ratio ◽  
Vertical Axis Wind Turbine ◽  
Modeling Tools ◽  
Content Type

PurposeThis paper aims to design an optimum vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) and assess its techno-economic performance for wind energy harvesting at high-speed railway in Malaysia.Design/methodology/approachThis project adopted AutoCAD and ANSYS modeling tools to design and optimize the blade of the turbine. The site selected has a railway of 30 km with six stops. The vertical turbines are placed 1 m apart from each other considering the optimum tip speed ratio. The power produced and net present value had been analyzed to evaluate its techno-economic viability.FindingsComputational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) 0020 blade has been carried out. For a turbine with wind speed of 50 m/s and swept area of 8 m2, the power generated is 245 kW. For eight trains that operate for 19 h/day with an interval of 30 min in nonpeak hours and 15 min in peak hours, total energy generated is 66 MWh/day. The average cost saved by the train stations is RM 16.7 mil/year with battery charging capacity of 12 h/day.Originality/valueWind energy harvesting is not commonly used in Malaysia due to its low wind speed ranging from 1.5 to 4.5 m/s. Conventional wind turbine requires a minimum cut-in wind speed of 11 m/s to overcome the inertia and starts generating power. Hence, this paper proposes an optimum design of VAWT to harvest an unconventional untapped wind sources from railway. The research finding complements the alternate energy harvesting technologies which can serve as reference for countries which experienced similar geographic constraints.

scholarly journals Analysis of Wind-Turbine Main Bearing Loads Due to Constant Yaw Misalignments over a 20 Years Timespan

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 1768 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Cardaun ◽  
Björn Roscher ◽  
Ralf Schelenz ◽  
Georg Jacobs
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Wind Farms ◽  
Wake Flow ◽  
Energy Output ◽  
Main Bearing ◽  
Load Distributions ◽  
Wind Speed Distribution ◽  
Bearing Loads ◽  
Compact Design ◽  
Multi Body

The compact design of modern wind farms means that turbines are located in the wake over a certain amount of time. This leads to reduced power and increased loads on the turbine in the wake. Currently, research has been dedicated to reduce or avoid these effects. One approach is wake-steering, where a yaw misalignment is introduced in the upstream wind turbine. Due to the intentional misalignment of upstream turbines, their wake flow can be forced around the downstream turbines, thus increasing park energy output. Such a control scheme reduces the turbulence seen by the downstream turbine but introduces additional load variation to the turbine that is misaligned. Within the scope of this investigation, a generic multi body simulation model is simulated for various yaw misalignments. The time series of the calculated loads are combined with the wind speed distribution of a reference site over 20 years to investigate the effects of yaw misalignments on the turbines main bearing loads. It is shown that damage equivalent loads increase with yaw misalignment within the range considered. Especially the vertical in-plane force, bending and tilt moment acting on the main bearing are sensitive to yaw misalignments. Furthermore, it is found that the change of load due to yaw misalignments is not symmetrical. The results of this investigation are a primary step and can be further combined with distributions of yaw misalignments for a study regarding specific load distributions and load cycles.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document