Wind Turbine Generators

Wind turbines are developed for an operating time of 20 years. Nevertheless, they are subject to specific loads, which are the reason, why some components of the drive train do not reach their life expectancy without any maintenance works. However, to generate good returns, it is important to implement a predictive maintenance.

Benefits of Condition Monitoring Systems

That´s why, condition monitoring systems are already a standard feature in wind turbines. So, it is possible to detect irregularities, in time:

bearing damages and imbalance on the main bearing,
damages on gears and bearings of the gearbox,
damages on bearings and imbalance of the generator, and
all alignment faults.

By Condition Monitoring, it is possible to detect damages even several months before reaching a critical state. In particular:

Maintenance works, personnel and tools could be planned and organized in the long-term.
Spare parts could be ordered in time.
Repair times are kept very short and could be shifted to the low wind period.

Wind turbine generators

The typical wind turbine configuration

Typically, two acceleration sensors are installed at the generator and five sensors are installed at the gearbox. Further sensors are installed at each rotor bearing.

At the high-speed shaft, the generator shaft, a speed sensor is installed, which supplies one impulse per revolution. For the application of the essentially required order analysis by resampling, this is sufficiently accurate.