Articles | Volume 8, issue 12
https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1821-2023
© 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-8-1821-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Wear test programs for roller-type pitch bearings of wind turbines
Matthias Stammler
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Large Bearing Laboratory, Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems (IWES), Hamburg, 21029, Germany
Related authors
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
Short summary
Short summary
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 and Florian Schleich
Wind Energ. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2023-163, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2023-163, 2024
Preprint under review for WES
Short summary
Short summary
The structures at the center of wind turbine rotors are loaded by the 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.
Arne Bartschat, Karsten Behnke, and Matthias Stammler
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 1495–1510, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1495-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1495-2023, 2023
Short summary
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.
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
Short summary
Short summary
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.
Matthias Stammler, Fabian Schwack, Norbert Bader, Andreas Reuter, and Gerhard Poll
Wind Energ. Sci., 3, 97–105, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-3-97-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-3-97-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
Modern wind turbines all share the ability to turn (pitch) the blades around their main axis. By pitching the blades, the aerodynamic forces created by the blades are controlled. Rolling bearings, consisting of two steel rings and balls that roll on raceways between them, are used to allow pitching. To design pitch drives, it is necessary to know the losses within the bearings. This article describes how such losses have been measured and compares them with calculation models.
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
Short summary
Short summary
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 and Florian Schleich
Wind Energ. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2023-163, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2023-163, 2024
Preprint under review for WES
Short summary
Short summary
The structures at the center of wind turbine rotors are loaded by the 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.
Arne Bartschat, Karsten Behnke, and Matthias Stammler
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 1495–1510, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1495-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1495-2023, 2023
Short summary
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.
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
Short summary
Short summary
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.
Matthias Stammler, Fabian Schwack, Norbert Bader, Andreas Reuter, and Gerhard Poll
Wind Energ. Sci., 3, 97–105, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-3-97-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-3-97-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
Modern wind turbines all share the ability to turn (pitch) the blades around their main axis. By pitching the blades, the aerodynamic forces created by the blades are controlled. Rolling bearings, consisting of two steel rings and balls that roll on raceways between them, are used to allow pitching. To design pitch drives, it is necessary to know the losses within the bearings. This article describes how such losses have been measured and compares them with calculation models.
Related subject area
Thematic area: Materials and operation | Topic: Structural monitoring and testing
Anomaly-based fault detection in wind turbine main bearings
Exploring limiting factors of wear in pitch bearings of wind turbines with real-scale tests
Lorena Campoverde-Vilela, María del Cisne Feijóo, Yolanda Vidal, José Sampietro, and Christian Tutivén
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 557–574, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-557-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-557-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
In order to provide early warnings of faults in the main bearing, a fault detection system is developed by applying an anomaly detector based on principal component analysis. Without the need to obtain the fault history or install additional equipment or sensors that would require a larger investment, this model is constructed using only healthy supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) data. The results obtained enable failure detection even months before the fatal breakdown takes place.
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
Short summary
Short summary
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.
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Short summary
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.
Wind turbines subject their components to highly variable loads over very long lifetimes. Tests...
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