TITLE:
Vibration Signals and Condition Monitoring for Wind Turbines
AUTHORS:
Dimitrios Koulocheris, Georgios Gyparakis, Andonios Stathis, Theodore Costopoulos
KEYWORDS:
Wind Turbines; Bearings; Basic Rating Life; Maintenance; Condition Monitoring; Vibration Signals
JOURNAL NAME:
Engineering,
Vol.5 No.12,
November
26,
2013
ABSTRACT: Rolling element bearings are critical parts of modern
wind turbines as they carry the loads of the turning structure and the wind
force. The stochastic nature of the wind loads makes it difficult to estimate
the useful operational life of the bearings. Condition monitoring of these
bearings in a real time environment could be very helpful in estimating their
performance and in scheduling maintenance actions when a condition-based
maintenance strategy is followed. This procedure can be successfully
implemented by using vibration analysis in the time domain or in the frequency
domain, giving useful results about the current condition of bearings and the
location of potential faults. Permanently located transducers on
proper positions on the bearings’ housings can be used in order to collect, process
and evaluate real time measurements and provide information about the bearing’s
performance. In this work, a test rig is utilized in order to evaluate the
performance of rolling bearings. The results of the experimentation are
satisfactory and the progress of fatigue failures can be predicted through
vibration analysis techniques showing that implementation in real scale may be
useful.