Fatigue Reliability Analysis of Wind Turbine Drivetrain Considering Strength Degradation and Load Sharing Using Survival Signature and FTA

Yao Li, Caichao Zhu, Xu Chen and Jianjun Tan
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Yao Li: State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmissions, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
Caichao Zhu: State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmissions, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
Xu Chen: State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmissions, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
Jianjun Tan: State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmissions, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 8, 1-21

Abstract: The wind turbine drivetrain suffers significant impact loads that severely affect the reliability and safety of wind turbines. Bearings and gears within the drivetrain are critical components with high repair costs and lengthy downtime. To realistically assess the system reliability, we propose to establish an electromechanical coupling dynamic model of the wind turbine considering the control strategy and environmental parameters and evaluate the system’s reliability of wind turbine drivetrain based on loads of gears and bearings. This paper focuses on the dynamic reliability analysis of the wind turbine under the control strategy and environmental conditions. SIMPACK (v9.7, Dassault Systèmes, Gilching, Germany) is used to develop the aero-hydro-servo-elastic coupling dynamic model with the full drivetrain that considers the flexibility of the tower and blade, the stochastic loads of wind and waves, gear meshing features, as well as the control strategy. The system reliability level of wind turbine drivetrain at different wind conditions is assessed using survival signature and fault tree analysis (FTA), and the influences of strength degradation of the transmission components on the system reliability are explored. Following this, the bending fatigue reliability and contact fatigue reliability concerning different wind conditions are compared in this paper. A case study is performed to demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed methodology.

Keywords: reliability analysis; wind turbine drivetrain; dynamic model; fatigue damage accumulation; survival signature; load sharing (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: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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