The focused shift to reduce carbon emissions by substituting fossil fuels with renewable energy sources, including wind, is increasing. This means that more and more wind turbines are being installed, both onshore and offshore. As the number of onshore and offshore wind farms increase, more and more turbines are reaching their end of designed service life. The typical designed service life of a wind turbine is 20 years. Due to economic factors, it is of great interest for operators to keep the turbines in operation beyond their service life, provided they meet the safe operational requirements. This period of time, after the original designed service life, that a wind turbine can continue to operate safely and meet its technical requirements, is referred to as lifetime extension. Whilst there are relatively well-established practices for lifetime extension of structural members, the electro-mechanical and drivetrain systems are often overlooked. The failure mechanism and damage rate of these components are different from that of structural members. The time-windows available between initiation of the damage and failure in electro-mechanical components are remarkably smaller than that of the structural members. Furthermore, the drivetrains consist of the inherently complex components and are subject to the considerable uncertainties associated with their manufacturing and operation. As such, there is a significant need for methods, analysis tools and framework for determining drivetrain lifetime extension.Due to the above reasons and since there is currently no well-established methodology for drivetrain lifetime extension to date, this paper’s objective is for the development of specialised methodology, tools and models for lifetime extension of wind turbine drivetrains – taking into account the uncertainties.Existing guidelines for lifetime extension, that are currently being used in wind energy and other industries are used as a starting point. These existing guidelines are investigated to see if they can be utilised or adapted for use in the lifetime extension of the drivetrain analyses.The majority of these guidelines suggest that the assessment of lifetime extension should consist of both analytical and practical parts.&nbsp;&nbsp;Where the analytical part involves new or additional calculations, considering the site specific conditions. The practical part consists of inspections of the components, as well as the review of data on each component taken from the SCADA data and all previous inspections and repairs. Having sufficient documentation such as accurate as-built drawings, maintenance records and failure reports, is an important requirement which will assist in providing a more accurate assessment.

On Lifetime Extension of Wind Turbine Drivetrains

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/OMAE/OMAE2021/volume/85116

OMAE 2021

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