Development of Optimal Maintenance Policies for Offshore Wind Turbine Gearboxes Based on the Non-homogeneous Continuous-Time Markov Process

Gearbox in offshore wind turbines is a component with the highest failure rates during operation. Analysis of gearbox repair policy that includes economic considerations is important for the effective operation of offshore wind farms. From their initial perfect working states, gearboxes degrade with time, which leads to decreased working efficiency. Thus, offshore wind turbine gearboxes can be considered to be multi-state systems with the various levels of productivity for different working states. To efficiently compute the time-dependent distribution of this multi-state system and analyze its reliability, application of the nonhomogeneous continuous-time Markov process(NHCTMP) is appropriate for this type of object. To determine the relationship between operation time and maintenance cost, many factors must be taken into account, including maintenance processes and vessel requirements. Finally, an optimal repair policy can be formulated based on this relationship.

Wind Turbine Planetary Gearbox Fault Diagnosis via Proportion-Extracting Synchrosqueezing Chirplet Transform

Wind turbine planetary gearboxes usually work under time-varying conditions,leading to nonstationary vibration signals.These signals often consist of multiple time-varying components with close instantaneous frequencies.Therefore,high-quality time-frequency analysis(TFA)is needed to extract the time-frequency feature from such nonstationary signals for fault diagnosis.However,it is difficult to obtain high-quality timefrequency representations(TFRs)through conventional TFA methods due to low resolution and time-frequency blurs.To address this issue,we propose a new TFA method termed the proportion-extracting synchrosqueezing chirplet transform(PESCT).Firstly,the proportion-extracting chirplet transform is employed to generate highresolution underlying TFRs.Then,the energy concentration of the underlying TFRs is enhanced via the synchrosqueezing transform.Finally,wind turbine planetary gearbox fault can be diagnosed by analysis of the dominant time-varying components revealed by the concentrated TFRs with high resolution.The proposed PESCT is suitable for achieving high-quality TFRs for complicated nonstationary signals.Numerical and experimental analyses validate the effectiveness of the PESCT in characterizing the nonstationary signals from wind turbine planetary gearboxes.

Real-Time Electrostatic Monitoring of Wear Debris for Wind Turbine Gearbox

Engineering practice has shown that early faults of gearboxes are a leading maintenance cost driver that can easily lower the profit from a wind turbine operation.A novel oil-lubricated electrostatic monitoring of wear debris for a wind turbine gearbox is presented.The continuous wavelet transform(CWT)is used to eliminate the noises of the original electrostatic signal.The kurtosis and root mean square(RMS)values of the time domain signal are extracted as the characteristic parameters to reflect the deterioration of the gearbox.The overall tendency of electrostatic signals in accelerated life test is analyzed.In the eighth cycle,the abnormal wear in the wind turbine gearbox is detected by electrostatic monitoring.A comparison with the popular MetalScan monitoring is given to illustrate the effectiveness of the electrostatic monitoring method.The results demonstrate that the electrostatic monitoring method can detect the fault accurately.

Reliability Analysis of Wind Turbine Gearbox Based on the Optimal Confidence Limit Method

Based on the zero-failure data of 30 Chinese 1. 5 MW wind turbine gearboxes( WTGs),the optimal confidence limit method was developed to predict the reliability and reliability lifetime of WTG. Firstly,Bayesian method and classical probability estimation method were introduced to estimate the value interval of shape parameter considering the engineering practice. Secondly,taking this value interval into the optimal confidence limit method,the reliability and reliability lifetime of WTG could be obtained under different confidence levels. Finally,the results of optimal confidence limit method and Bayesian method were compared. And the comparison results show that the rationality of this estimated range.Meantime, the rule of confidence level selection in the optimal confidence limit method is provided, and the reliability and reliability lifetime prediction of WTG can be acquired.

Preliminary Design Support by Integrating a Reliability Analysis for Wind Turbine

In the context of industrial competitiveness, taking into account the process design throughout the product life cycle is inevitable, from the expression of the need to recycle, the capitalization and knowledge management increasingly a target much sought after companies because of increased knowledge. Indeed, during the approval phase and use studies and scientific researches make have generated knowledge especially that concerning the reliability of system components. In this context, the capitalization and reuse of knowledge are necessary and have a particular interest in design and particularly in the preliminary design phase. Studies are already completed suggest a design process ranging from the need to solve the problem. At each phase of the process, structural characteristics are defined by the designer through the available knowledge already capitalized to make choice of component and their arrangement. This article proposes integrating the analysis of system reliability in this process. The objective is the use of knowledge in the vision safety and hazards of operating through the study of reliability and decision making for the selection of solution.

An Experiment on Power Properties in a Small-Scaled Wind Turbine Generator

This study configures a simple wind tunnel using a blower for generating wind energy, which is equivalent to natural wind, and a test system that measures properties of power. Also, the mechanical and electrical power in a small-scaled wind turbine are empirically measured to analyze the relationship between the mechanical and electrical power.

Discussion on Maintenance Cases of Wind Turbine Components

At present,the greenhouse effect is caused by excessive emission of carbon dioxide.As a result the Arctic ice has melted and sea levels have risen.If it continues to deteriorate,it will cause human catastrophe.In order to avoid direct crisis and development,green energy is the only necessary way.Here,wind power plays an important role.Onshore wind power has been developed in Taiwan for more than 15 years.There are 341 onshore wind turbines that have been built so far.The total installed capacity is 678 MW high.Among them,Tai power occupies a total of 169 stations with a total installed capacity of 294 MW.Offshore wind turbines are also under construction.By 2025,the capacity will be 5 to 6 GW.It can be seen that the supply of wind power in the overall power market will become an important area in the future.Therefore,how to improve the availability and capacity factors of wind turbine power generation will become a top priority for owners.Since most of the world’s best wind farms are in the Taiwan Strait,this is a unique feature of Taiwan,although Taiwan lacks traditional fuels,petroleum,coal,natural gas and other resources.If these abundant solar and wind energy resources can be effectively utilized,in addition to reducing carbon emissions and contributing to the world,the development of green energy can also drive the development of the domestic green energy industry,also through the development of green energy to establish domestic operation and maintenance technology for wind turbines.

Wind Turbine Gearbox Fault Diagnosis Based on Multi-sensor Signals Fusion

This paper proposes a novel fault diagnosis method by fusing the information from multi-sensor signals to improve the reliability of the conventional vibration-based wind turbine drivetrain gearbox fault diagnosis methods.The method fully extracts fault features for variable speed,insufficient samples,and strong noise scenarios that may occur in the actual operation of a wind turbine planetary gearbox.First,multiple sensor signals are added to the diagnostic model,and multiple stacked denoising auto-encoders are designed and improved to extract the fault information.Then,a cycle reservoir with regular jumps is introduced to fuse multidimensional fault information and output diagnostic results in response to the insufficient ability to process fused information by the conventional Softmax classifier.In addition,the competitive swarm optimizer algorithm is introduced to address the challenge of obtaining the optimal combination of parameters in the network.Finally,the validation results show that the proposed method can increase fault diagnostic accuracy and improve robustness.

Multi-objective genetic algorithms based structural optimization and experimental investigation of the planet carrier in wind turbine gearbox

To improve the dynamic performance and reduce the weight of the planet carrier in wind turbine gearbox, a multi-objective optimization method, which is driven by the maximum deformation, the maximum stress and the minimum mass of the studied part, is proposed by combining the response surface method and genetic algorithms in this paper. Firstly, the design points＇ distribution for the design variables of the planet carrier is established with the central composite design （CCD） method. Then, based on the computing results of finite element analysis （FEA）, the response surface analysis is conducted to find out the proper sets of design variable values. And a multi-objective genetic algorithm （MOGA） is applied to determine the direction of optimization. As well, this method is applied to design and optimize the planet carrier in a 1.5 MW wind turbine gearbox, the results of which are validated by an experimental modal test. Compared with the original design, the mass and the stress of the optimized planet carrier are respectively reduced by 9.3% and 40%. Consequently, the cost of planet carrier is greatly reduced and its stability is also improved.

Reliability Copula Model for Wind Turbine Gearbox Based on Failure Correlation

On the basis of each gear's failure correlation, the reliability Copula model of a wind turbine gearbox is established and a 1.5 MW wind turbine gearbox is taken as the research object. Firstly, based on the dynamic reliability model of mechanical parts, each gear's life distribution function of a wind turbine gearbox is obtained.The life distribution function can be used as the marginal distributions of the system's joint distribution. Secondly,Copula function is introduced to describe the failure correlation between parts, and the appropriate Copula function is selected according to the shape characters of Copula probability density function. Finally, the wind turbine gearbox system is divided into three parts according to the failure correlation of each gear. The Sklar theorem and the thought of step by step analysis are used to obtain the reliability Copula model for a wind turbine gearbox based on failure correlation.

Weak characteristic information extraction from early fault of wind turbine generator gearboxKeywords wind turbine generator gearbox, B-singular value decomposition, local mean decomposition, weak characteristic information extraction, early fault warning

Given the weak early degradation characteristic information during early fault evolution in gearbox of wind turbine generator, traditional singular value decomposition （SVD）-based denoising may result in loss of useful information. A weak characteristic information extraction based on μ-SVD and local mean decomposition （LMD） is developed to address this problem. The basic principle of the method is as follows： Determine the denoising order based on cumulative contribution rate, perform signal reconstruction, extract and subject the noisy part of signal to LMD and μ-SVD denoising, and obtain denoised signal through superposition. Experimental results show that this method can significantly weaken signal noise, effectively extract the weak characteristic information of early fault, and facilitate the early fault warning and dynamic predictive maintenance.

Wind Turbine Gearbox Reliability Analysis Based on the System Level Stress-Strength Model

In order to estimate the reliability of wind turbine gearbox based on the system level, a generalized stress-strength model is introduced. Considering that the system works properly under a variety of random stresses which affect every component, the total stress on the system is given by a known linear combination of the stresses of all components. Then the strength of the system can be viewed as a linear combination of the strengths of relative components. In this model, stress and strength are independent of each other. Reliability of the system is the probability that strength exceeds stress. Finally, the reliability of wind turbine gearbox is estimated by the multivariable reliability calculation method. The corresponding result is compared with the results of reliability in the extreme cases(completely dependent and completely independent) by the traditional evaluation method.

A dynamic-model-based fault diagnosis method for a wind turbine planetary gearbox using a deep learning network

The planetary gearbox is a critical part of wind turbines,and has great significance for their safety and reliability.Intelligent fault diagnosis methods for these gearboxes have made some achievements based on the availability of large quantities of labeled data.However,the data collected from the diagnosed devices are always unlabeled,and the acquisition of fault data from real gearboxes is time-consuming and laborious.As some gearbox faults can be conveniently simulated by a relatively precise dynamic model,the data from dynamic simulation containing some features are related to those from the actual machines.As a potential tool,transfer learning adapts a network trained in a source domain to its application in a target domain.Therefore,a novel fault diagnosis method combining transfer learning with dynamic model is proposed to identify the health conditions of planetary gearboxes.In the method,a modified lumped-parameter dynamic model of a planetary gear train is established to simulate the resultant vibration signal,while an optimized deep transfer learning network based on a one-dimensional convolutional neural network is built to extract domain-invariant features from different domains to achieve fault classification.Various groups of transfer diagnosis experiments of planetary gearboxes are carried out,and the experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness and the reliability of both the dynamic model and the proposed method.

Multiple fault separation and detection by joint subspace learning for the health assessment of wind turbine gearboxes

The gearbox of a wind turbine （WT） has dominant failure rates and highest downtime loss among all WT subsystems. Thus, gearbox health assessment for maintenance cost reduction is of paramount importance. The concurrence of multiple faults in gearbox components is a common phenomenon due to fault induction mechanism. This problem should be considered before planning to replace the components of the WT gearbox. Therefore, the key fault patterns should be reliably identified from noisy observation data for the development of an effective maintenance strategy. However, most of the existing studies focusing on multiple fault diagnosis always suffer from inappropriate division of fault information in order to satisfy various rigorous decomposition principles or statistical assumptions, such as the smooth envelope principle of ensemble empirical mode decomposition and the mutual independence assumption of independent component analysis. Thus, this paper presents a joint subspace learning-based multiple fault detection （JSLMFD） technique to construct different subspaces adaptively for different fault pattems. Its main advantage is its capability to learn multiple fault subspaces directly from the observation signal itself. It can also sparsely concentrate the feature information into a few dominant subspace coefficients. Furthermore, it can eliminate noise by simply performing coefficient shrinkage operations. Consequently, multiple fault patterns are reliably identified by utilizing the maximum fault information criterion. The superiority of JSL-MFD in multiple fault separation and detection is comprehensively investigated and verified by the analysis of a data set of a 750 kW WT gearbox. Results show that JSL-MFD is superior to a state-of-the-art technique in detecting hidden fault patterns and enhancing detection accuracy.

基于遗传算法的风电齿轮传动系统参数优化设计

齿轮箱是风力发电系统的重要部件,其体积大、重量高等问题制约了风电清洁能源的发展.以1.5 WM风力发电机组为研究对象,建立齿轮传动系统轻量化数学模型,并采用遗传算法进行优化求解.结果表明,采用遗传算法是可行的,优化后齿轮传动系统体积减少了4.59%,这将进一步减小齿轮传动系统箱体体积和总质量.通过计算行星轮系的传动效率,验证了优化结果的可行性,该研究将为风电齿轮传动系统轻量化设计提供新方法.

改进MFO-LSTM网络的风电机组齿轮箱故障预警研究

风电机组齿轮箱在数据采集与监控系统(SCADA)的帮助下,通过监控齿轮箱油温是否超过阈值实现故障报警,其判断精度不高且问题发现不及时,因此使用长短期记忆网络模型(LSTM)融合SCADA数据实现对齿轮箱油温状态的预测。用齿轮箱正常运行状态下的数据训练LSTM模型,计算油温预测值与真实值之间的残差,根据正态分布的原则设置残差的上下预警阈值,用来对齿轮箱故障进行预警。为简化训练模型的复杂度,在SCADA数据中选用与齿轮箱油温相关性较为密切的参数作为LSTM模型的输入项。为降低因LSTM模型超参数设置不当造成的预测准确度表现不佳,提出改进飞蛾火焰算法(MFO)与LSTM的组合模型,在保留MFO算法强大的全局搜索能力的同时,使其避免陷入局部搜索的陷阱,通过改进MFO对LSTM模型参数进行迭代优化,最终构建合适的模型。最后通过某风电机组SCADA数据验证该方法能够有效预警齿轮箱的故障,并且与其他方法相比准确度更高,预警更及时,迭代效果更好。

应用滑动轴承的风电齿轮箱行星轮系动力学建模及解耦方法

在行星轮系动力学建模中,常以非线性油膜力或线性刚度-阻尼形式考虑其对系统动力学特性的影响,前者仿真精度高但计算成本也高,后者计算效率高却忽略了油膜力和轴颈-轴套偏心量的时变性,仿真精度有限。为此,以2MW级风电齿轮箱为研究对象,建立滑动轴承时变线性刚度-阻尼模型,提出计入轴颈-轴套时变偏心量的滑动轴承附加偏心修正力计算方法;利用行星架销轴-行星轮变形协调关系,将时变线性刚度-阻尼模型与附加偏心修正力进行耦合;建立应用滑动轴承的风电齿轮箱行星轮系动力学模型,对比了工况和轴承参数对模型计算精度与系统动态响应的影响,并通过试验加以验证。研究结果表明,齿轮副动态啮合力波动会使滑动轴承刚度-阻尼系数和附加偏心修正力产生周期性变化;在稳定和瞬态工况下,提出的模型可以很好地预测系统响应,尤其是行星轮振动响应;减小滑动轴承宽径比与间隙、增大输入转矩可以改善系统均载性能。

变转速下基于改进多阶概率方法的风电齿轮箱故障诊断研究

阶次跟踪是一种有效的解决变转速故障诊断问题的方法,其关键前提是存在转速信号作为参考。然而,由于强背景噪声和弱谐波关系的影响,现有转速估计方法的准确性和自适应性有待进一步提高。因此,提出一种融合多传感器信号的改进多阶概率方法(MOPA)用以估计瞬时转速。首先,依据不同传感器信号的基频统一性和主导分量差异性,通过时频图瞬时切片归一化融合的方式,构建具有强谐波关系的时频图;其次,为消除时变工况下时频图中横纵方向上的间歇恒频和短时宽频背景噪声,提出滑动消噪方法;最后,基于处理后的时频图执行MOPA,实现瞬时转速自动估计,结合阶次跟踪解决风电齿轮箱变转速故障诊断问题。经实测数据验证,改进MOPA估计的瞬时频率的准确性和自适应性均优于对方法,平均绝对百分比误差为0.56%,均小于对比方法的15.73%、13.99%和1.21%。结合阶次分析诊断了变转速下风电齿轮箱异常。

风电机组用滑动轴承研究现状与发展趋势

首先,分析滚动轴承在风电传动系统中应用的局限性,探讨滑动轴承“以滑代滚”的可行性。然后,从风电机组用滑动轴承结构设计、轴承材料、性能分析及优化、试验测试及应用4个关键环节,综述滑动轴承风电应用的现有技术手段和面临的困难。最后,对风电机组滑动轴承的材料改性、一体化设计、延寿技术发展趋势做出展望。

斜齿轮啮合弯矩对风电齿轮箱行星轮滑动轴承瞬态润滑性能影响分析

风电齿轮箱行星轮滑动轴承常被设计为以行星轮内孔和销轴分别作为轴套和轴颈,然而斜齿轮啮合弯矩容易使行星轮与销轴之间产生轴线不对中,导致边缘接触风险高,影响运行寿命。以6 MW级传动链齿轮箱行星轮滑动轴承为研究对象,考虑滑动轴承径向载荷、弯矩以及转速的动态影响,建立了行星轮滑动轴承瞬态摩擦-动力学耦合模型,并以风电机组传动链SIMPACK动力学模型提取的行星轮动态啮合力与时变转速作为行星轮滑动轴承的载荷与运动边界输入,分析了斜齿轮啮合弯矩、输入扭矩和滑动轴承半径间隙对行星轮滑动轴承润滑性能的影响规律,并进行了实验验证。研究结果表明,行星轮动态啮合力及其产生的啮合弯矩会造成行星轮轴心位置与偏斜角产生动态循环变化,并且随着载荷的增加,行星轮滑动轴承油膜/固体接触压力与不对中弯矩会逐渐增大;减小行星轮滑动轴承半径间隙可以有效提高其瞬态润滑性能。