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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Wenxian YangORCiD
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With an increasing number of wind turbines being erected offshore, there is a need for cost-effective, predictive, and proactive maintenance. A large fraction of wind turbine downtime is due to bearing failures, particularly in the generator and gearbox. One way of assessing impending problems is to install vibration sensors in key positions on these subassemblies. Such equipment can be costly and requires sophisticated software for analysis of the data. An alternative approach, which does not require extra sensors, is investigated in this paper. This involves monitoring the power output of a variable-speed wind turbine generator and processing the data using a wavelet in order to extract the strength of particular frequency components, characteristic of faults. This has been done for doubly fed induction generators (DFIGs), commonly used in modern variable-speed wind turbines. The technique is first validated on a test rig under controlled fault conditions and then is applied to two operational wind turbine DFIGs where generator shaft misalignment was detected. For one of these turbines, the technique detected a problem 3 months before a bearing failure was recorded.
Author(s): Watson SJ, Xiang BJ, Yang Wenxian, Tavner P, Crabtree C
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion
Year: 2010
Volume: 25
Issue: 3
Pages: 715-721
Print publication date: 19/08/2010
ISSN (print): 0885-8969
ISSN (electronic): 1558-0059
Publisher: IEEE
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TEC.2010.2040083
DOI: 10.1109/TEC.2010.2040083
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