TY - JOUR
T1 - Experimental evaluation of the mesh load factor ( K 3) of a 6MW wind turbine gearbox
AU - Santiago, Unai Gutierrez
AU - Sisón, Alfredo Fernández
AU - Polinder, Henk
AU - Van Wingerden, Jan Willem
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - The significant increase in rotor diameters seen in modern wind turbines has pushed gearbox manufacturers to introduce technological innovations to increase the torque density of current designs. Driven by the need to lower the cost of energy from wind and size limitations imposed by logistic constraints in onshore wind, a trend has emerged to increase the number of planetary stages and the number of planet gears per stage. One of the main challenges of next-generation gearbox designs is sharing the load evenly between a high number of planets. This paper presents an experimental evaluation of the mesh load factor of a modern 6MW wind turbine gearbox with five planets in the first planetary stage. Results from the traditional method, based on tooth root strain gauges, and from strain measurements in the outer surface of the ring gear are described and assessed. Both experimental approaches have yielded lower mesh load factor values than the default values required in the standard "Design requirements for wind turbine gearboxes"IEC 61400-4. Since the mesh load factor is used for gear rating and sizing, a lower value allows a more optimized gearbox design, which leads to a significant improvement in torque density and cost.
AB - The significant increase in rotor diameters seen in modern wind turbines has pushed gearbox manufacturers to introduce technological innovations to increase the torque density of current designs. Driven by the need to lower the cost of energy from wind and size limitations imposed by logistic constraints in onshore wind, a trend has emerged to increase the number of planetary stages and the number of planet gears per stage. One of the main challenges of next-generation gearbox designs is sharing the load evenly between a high number of planets. This paper presents an experimental evaluation of the mesh load factor of a modern 6MW wind turbine gearbox with five planets in the first planetary stage. Results from the traditional method, based on tooth root strain gauges, and from strain measurements in the outer surface of the ring gear are described and assessed. Both experimental approaches have yielded lower mesh load factor values than the default values required in the standard "Design requirements for wind turbine gearboxes"IEC 61400-4. Since the mesh load factor is used for gear rating and sizing, a lower value allows a more optimized gearbox design, which leads to a significant improvement in torque density and cost.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85131837570&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1088/1742-6596/2265/3/032003
DO - 10.1088/1742-6596/2265/3/032003
M3 - Conference article
AN - SCOPUS:85131837570
VL - 2265
JO - Journal of Physics: Conference Series
JF - Journal of Physics: Conference Series
SN - 1742-6588
IS - 3
M1 - 032003
T2 - 2022 Science of Making Torque from Wind, TORQUE 2022
Y2 - 1 June 2022 through 3 June 2022
ER -