A Comparative Study on Primary Bearing Rating Life of a 5-MW Two-Blade Wind Turbine System Based on Two Different Control Domains

Bon-Yong Koo and Dae-Yi Jung
Additional contact information
Bon-Yong Koo: School of Mechanical Convergence System Engineering, Kunsan National University, Gunsan 54150, Korea
Dae-Yi Jung: School of Mechanical Convergence System Engineering, Kunsan National University, Gunsan 54150, Korea

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 13, 1-16

Abstract: Recently, the importance of individual pitch control (IPC) capability in wind turbine systems has been emphasized to achieve the desired power performance and mitigate the aerodynamic imbalance load for the mechanical integrity. Compared to collective pitch control (CPC), which assigns identical pitch angles for all employed blades, IPC is capable of generating other various sets of pitch angles to manipulate the aerodynamic load. Thus, the mechanical elements of wind turbine systems may take advantages from this variation, which allows wind turbines to have lighter designs and longer lifetimes. One of the essential mechanical components in the wind turbine is a primary bearing supporting the blades–rotor–shaft unit, which has not been fully investigated yet among the structural elements in the wind turbine system. In this regard, this research focuses on predicting the bearing life span of a NACA64-A17 two-blade 5-MW wind turbine system for the domains of allowable individual pitch angles by IPC. In particular, under the effect of various wind speeds, a bearing life span was determined based on the average value of load cases—satisfying both appropriate power level and the allowable domain of pitch control angles, which were possibly conveyed by IPC—and the result was compared with the bearing life predicted based on the domain of pitch angles, as generated by the CPC strategy. Consequently, in the ranges of high wind speeds, it was found that the average applied load to the bearing is reduced under the domain of the IPC-based pitch angle, resulting in possibly increasing the life span of the bearing. With the presented results, it is hoped that this work will provide important insights for those that majorly concern designing the primary bearing of the IPC-based wind turbine system.

Keywords: wind turbine system; bearing rating life; collective pitch control (CPC); individual pitch control (IPC) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/13/2607/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/13/2607/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:12:y:2019:i:13:p:2607-:d:246290

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().