Articles | Volume 9, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-777-2024
© Author(s) 2024. 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-9-777-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Review of rolling contact fatigue life calculation for oscillating bearings and application-dependent recommendations for use
Oliver Menck
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES, Am Schleusengraben 22, 21029 Hamburg, Germany
Matthias Stammler
Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES, Am Schleusengraben 22, 21029 Hamburg, Germany
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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.
Matthias Stammler and Florian Schleich
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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.
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.
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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
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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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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
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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: Fatigue
Probabilistic surrogate modeling of damage equivalent loads on onshore and offshore wind turbines using mixture density networks
Effect of scour on the fatigue life of offshore wind turbines and its prevention through passive structural control
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Quantifying the effect of low-frequency fatigue dynamics on offshore wind turbine foundations: a comparative study
Sensitivity analysis of the effect of wind and wake characteristics on wind turbine loads in a small wind farm
Probabilistic temporal extrapolation of fatigue damage of offshore wind turbine substructures based on strain measurements
Damage equivalent load synthesis and stochastic extrapolation for fatigue life validation
Deepali Singh, Richard Dwight, and Axelle Viré
Wind Energ. Sci., 9, 1885–1904, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-1885-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-1885-2024, 2024
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The selection of a suitable site for the installation of a wind turbine plays an important role in ensuring a safe operating lifetime of the structure. In this study, we show that mixture density networks can accelerate this process by inferring functions from data that can accurately map the environmental conditions to the loads but also propagate the uncertainty from the inflow to the response.
Yu Cao, Ningyu Wu, Jigang Yang, Chao Chen, Ronghua Zhu, and Xugang Hua
Wind Energ. Sci., 9, 1089–1104, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-1089-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-9-1089-2024, 2024
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This study investigates the offshore wind turbine support structure’s fatigue life by a rapid numerical model which considers the effects of scour and a tuned mass damper. An optimization technique is proposed to find the damper's optimal parameters, considering time-varying scour. It is found that the damper optimized by the proposed optimization technique performs better than an initially designed damper in terms of fatigue life enhancement.
Rad Haghi and Curran Crawford
Wind Energ. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2023-157, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-2023-157, 2023
Revised manuscript accepted for WES
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The journal paper focuses on developing surrogate models for predicting the Damage Equivalent Load (DEL) on wind turbines without needing extensive aeroelastic simulations. The study emphasizes the development of a sequential machine-learning architecture for this purpose. The study also explores implementing simplified wake models and transfer learning to enhance the models' prediction capabilities in various wind conditions.
Negin Sadeghi, Pietro D'Antuono, Nymfa Noppe, Koen Robbelein, Wout Weijtjens, and Christof Devriendt
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 1839–1852, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1839-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-1839-2023, 2023
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Analysis of long-term fatigue damage of four offshore wind turbines using 3 years of measurement data was performed for the first time to gain insight into the low-frequency fatigue damage (LFFD) impact on overall consumed life. The LFFD factor depends on the (linear) stress–life (SN) curve slope, heading, site, signal, and turbine type. Up to ∼ 65 % of the total damage can be related to LFFDs. Therefore, in this case study, the LFFD effect has a significant impact on the final damage.
Kelsey Shaler, Amy N. Robertson, and Jason Jonkman
Wind Energ. Sci., 8, 25–40, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-25-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-8-25-2023, 2023
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This work evaluates which wind-inflow- and wake-related parameters have the greatest influence on fatigue and ultimate loads for turbines in a small wind farm. Twenty-eight parameters were screened using an elementary effects approach to identify the parameters that lead to the largest variation in these loads of each turbine. The findings show the increased importance of non-streamwise wind components and wake parameters in fatigue and ultimate load sensitivity of downstream turbines.
Clemens Hübler and Raimund Rolfes
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 1919–1940, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1919-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1919-2022, 2022
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Offshore wind turbines are beginning to reach their design lifetimes. Hence, lifetime extensions are becoming relevant. To make well-founded decisions on possible lifetime extensions, fatigue damage predictions are required. Measurement-based assessments instead of simulation-based analyses have rarely been conducted so far, since data are limited. Therefore, this work focuses on the temporal extrapolation of measurement data. It is shown that fatigue damage can be extrapolated accurately.
Anand Natarajan
Wind Energ. Sci., 7, 1171–1181, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1171-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-7-1171-2022, 2022
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The article delineates a novel procedure to use 10 min measurement statistics with few known parameters of the wind turbine to determine the long-term fatigue damage probability and compare this with the expected damage levels from the design to provide an indicator of structural reliability and remaining life. The results are validated with load measurements from a wind turbine within an offshore wind farm.
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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.
Oscillating bearings, like rotating bearings, can fail due to rolling contact fatigue. But the...
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