Articles | Volume 8, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1495-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1495-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
The effect of site-specific wind conditions and individual pitch control on wear of blade bearings
Arne Bartschat
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES, Large Bearing Laboratory Am Schleusengraben 22, 21029 Hamburg, Germany
Karsten Behnke
Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES, Large Bearing Laboratory Am Schleusengraben 22, 21029 Hamburg, Germany
Matthias Stammler
Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES, Large Bearing Laboratory Am Schleusengraben 22, 21029 Hamburg, Germany
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Oliver Menck, Florian Schleich, and Matthias Stammler
Wind Energ. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2025-53, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2025-53, 2025
Revised manuscript under review for WES
Short summary
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The paper discusses how to calculate the life of a blade bearing that is a roller bearing, as opposed to ball bearings, which most papers on the subject discuss. The raceway fatigue life of the bearing is calculated in a very detailed manner. This includes a validated finite element simulation model, and an approach to determine loads for all operating conditions that the wind turbine experiences.
Matthias Stammler and Florian Schleich
Wind Energ. Sci., 10, 813–826, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-10-813-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-10-813-2025, 2025
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The structures at the center of wind turbine rotors are loaded by three rotor blades. The rotor blades have different loads, which depend on their positions and the incoming wind. The number of possible different loads is too high to simulate each of them for later design of the structures. This work attempts to reduce the number of necessary simulations by exploring inherent relations between the loads of the three rotor blades.
Oliver Menck and Matthias Stammler
Wind Energ. Sci., 9, 777–798, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-777-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-777-2024, 2024
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Oscillating bearings, like rotating bearings, can fail due to rolling contact fatigue. But the publications in the literature on this topic are difficult to understand. In order to help people decide which method to use, we have summarized the available literature. We also point out some errors and things to look out for to help engineers that want to calculate the rolling contact fatigue life of an oscillating bearing.
Matthias Stammler
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 1821–1837, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1821-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1821-2023, 2023
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Wind turbines subject their components to highly variable loads over very long lifetimes. Tests of components like the pitch bearings that connect rotor blades and the rotor hub serve to validate their ability to withstand these loads. Due to the complexity of the operational loads, the definition of test programs is challenging. This work outlines a method that defines wear test programs for specific pitch bearings and gives a case study for an example turbine.
Karsten Behnke and Florian Schleich
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 289–301, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-289-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-289-2023, 2023
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The objective of this work is to find limits within typical operating conditions of a wind turbine below which wear on the bearing raceway does not occur. It covers the test of blade bearings with an outer diameter of 2.6 m. The test parameters are based on a 3 MW reference turbine and are compared to values from the literature. It was shown that it can be possible to avoid wear, which again can be used to design a wind turbine controller.
Oliver Menck, Matthias Stammler, and Florian Schleich
Wind Energ. Sci., 5, 1743–1754, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-5-1743-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-5-1743-2020, 2020
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Blade bearings of wind turbines experience unusual loads compared to bearings in other industrial applications, which adds some difficulty to the application of otherwise well-established calculation methods, like fatigue lifetime. As a result, different methods for such calculations can be found in the literature. This paper compares three approaches of varying complexity and comes to the conclusion that the simplest of the methods is very inaccurate compared to the more complex methods.
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Short summary
Blade bearings are among the most stressed and challenging components of a wind turbine. Experimental investigations using different test rigs and real-size blade bearings have been able to show that rather short time intervals of only several hours of turbine operation can cause wear damage on the raceways of blade bearings. The proposed methods can be used to assess wear-critical operation conditions and to validate control strategies as well as lubricants for the application.
Blade bearings are among the most stressed and challenging components of a wind turbine....
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