Impact of Imbalanced Wind Turbine Generator Cooling on Reliability

2021

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For better annual energy production, wind turbine generator components are expected to perform efficiently and safely. Development of recent high-efficiency generators and motors leading their designs with less cooling capacity. Bearings are one of the most stressed components in the generator. Recent studies have indicated that bearing failure is the prime cause of generator failure, in wind turbine application. Grease lubrication deterioration was found to be the leading cause of motors and generators bearing failure. Grease service life for generators are closely associated with the operating temperature. One issue with the less cooling design is the higher bearing temperature. This led to marginal lubrication, premature bearing failure, and reduce generator reliability. To verify this and address the issue of inadequate and imbalanced bearing cooling; this paper presents recent experimentation performed on-air to air-cooled squirrel cage induction generator. This test addresses a potential issue with the IC6A1A6 cooled generator design and recommends the updates with corresponding standards. To get optimal bearing life and generator reliability, either allowed bearing operating temperature range should be reduced significantly, by developing a new cooling strategy or standards committee should come up with different intervals of lubrication for both ends of the bearings. Issues similar to with IEEE standard 841 high-efficiency motors can be avoided, where a study performed on the reliability of these motors used in refinery confirmed that motors are at greater risk. A proactive plan based on the result and recommendations in this paper will help to secure the safe wind turbine-generator operation.

Section: Operating Temperature and Grease Service Lifementioning

confidence: 98%

Methods to improve wind turbine generator bearing temperature imbalance for onshore wind turbines

2021

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“…Achieved results presented the advantage of an average of 40°C in winding and 30°C in bearing temperature. Studies performed by Singh et al (2019a, 2019b, 2019c, 2019d) also addresses the issues related with manufacturing, windings & bearings with a similar generator and with similar qualification process. Vent tube deformation can be fixed by knowing the location and adjusting the manufacturing process accordingly.…”

Section: Deformed Component (Air Vent Tube) Of the Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Manufacturing deformation impact on the performance of electrical generator for the wind turbine application

2020

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The system of systems approach is the representation of several distributed and independent systems, for a larger and complex system. The system can be defined as interacting and interdependent components forming a complex system. System perspective considers every single stator bar as a complex system, made up of several component strands and vent tubes. Strands are interacting and interdependent in orientation, to cancel out unbalanced strand voltage and minimizing circulating current. Visualizing the electrical generator with the system approach, the issue of incorrectly aligned interdependent and interacting components of the system has been noticed. The study presents the effective flux calculation due to strand tilt, and a nondestructive testing technique to measure the strand tilt. This paper first time presents a unique system perspective of the electrical generator; this would open further dimensions of system research, in electrical rotatory machinery and beyond.

“…This article aimed to find that solution. Studies performed by Singh et al (2019aSingh et al ( , 2019bSingh et al ( , 2019c) also address issues related to the manufacturing, windings, and bearings with similar generators.…”

Section: Problem Being Investigatedmentioning

confidence: 99%

A solution to reduce overheating and increase wind turbine systems availability

Matuonto³

2020

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The ever-increasing demand for electrical power and the tremendous growth of renewable energy sources in the past decade has led designers to design wind turbine system components for optimal performance. Cost optimization, weight reduction, higher performances, and lower non-conformance cost are a few expectations that components are expected to meet in the present market condition. Wind turbine system unavailability impacts the annual energy production of the wind turbine. Overheating of the wind turbine system components is one of the main challenges to overcome. For the heating analysis, we discuss the wind turbine generator as a specific example in this article. This approach is equally valid for other components of wind turbine systems, with heat exchanger. Windings and bearings are the two main components susceptible to failure in the generator for wind turbine applications. The root cause may vary from case to case, but overheating accelerates the generator’s windings and bearing failure and in many cases is the prime reason behind. Running the components at higher load points is one of the reasons for components to overheat. The article presents a solution to improve the performance of the wind turbine system and at the same time making it a commercially attractive choice. This can be achieved by reducing generator windings and bearings operating temperature, and also reducing its cost and weight at the same time. The proposed solution to reduce overheating is achieved and verified through results. The achieved results also explain how one solution is advantageous over the other.