On the Development of Offshore Wind Turbine Technology: An Assessment of Reliability Rates and Fault Detection Methods in a Changing Market

Turnbull, A.; McKinnon, Conor; Carrol, James; McDonald, Alasdair

doi:10.3390/en15093180

Cited by 8 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 65 publications

(39 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This section presents a review of literature surrounding drive-train reliability for wind turbines since the publication by Carroll et al (2016) and not included by Turnbull et al (2022). These are summarised in Table 1.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This study assumes that the the only failure rates that change between the two configurations are the gearbox, generator and the main bearing. However, the work done by Turnbull et al (2022) suggest that this is not the case.…”

Section: Limitations Of Analysis/modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further work would involve adjusting some of the direct drive components based on the work done by Turnbull et al (2022) to see the impact this would have on the cost gap between the configurations.…”

Section: Limitations Of Analysis/modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Coinciding with this shift in the market towards direct drive turbines is a shift towards higher power ratings (Jenkins et al (2022a)). This is a theme investigated by Turnbull et al (2022). They pose the question: how much insight can be drawn from data gathered on older technology and applied to modern direct-drive machines?…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Operations and Maintenance Cost Comparison Between 15 MW Direct-Drive and Medium-Speed Offshore Wind Turbines

Donnelly,

Anderson,

Carroll

2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Determining offshore wind energy operational expenditures relies on acquiring reliability data, particularly as turbine power ratings increase. The uncertainty surrounding operational costs and optimal drive train configurations for larger turbines persists. While previous research addressed reliability data for 3 MW offshore wind turbines, this study reviews and collates updated failure data for 15 MW turbines, comparing direct drive and medium-speed configurations. It employs an Operations and Maintenance (O&M) modeling tool to calculate total operational costs. The study concurs with existing literature, showing that direct drive turbines have lower operational costs than medium-speed turbines in three case studies. However, the cost and availability differences between configurations are smaller than previously suggested. For 15 MW turbines, the analysis reveals that the cost disparity between direct drive and medium-speed turbines is significantly smaller than for smaller-rated turbines, with percentages of 1.59 %, 1.58 %, and 5.78 % for the three ScotWind sites selected. Previously, the absolute % difference in cost between direct drive and medium speed turbines was estimated at 29.79 %. Sensitivity analyses explore the influence of three factors—failure rates, accessibility limits, and major replacement times—on total operational costs. These analyses demonstrate that medium-speed configurations exhibit more significant cost fluctuations, and the cost gap between configurations is reduced if failure rates are lowered at the same rate for each configuration, accessibility increases or the major replacement time is reduced for the larger wind turbine components.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Limitations Of Analysis/modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Limitations Of Analysis/modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Operations and Maintenance Cost Comparison Between 15 MW Direct-Drive and Medium-Speed Offshore Wind Turbines

Donnelly,

Anderson,

Carroll

2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A large portion of the installed wind turbines employ a gearbox in the drivetrain to convert the slow rotation speed of the rotor to a higher velocity appropriate for the generator 5,6 . In these turbines, gearbox repairs can have a significant contribution to maintenance costs and downtime 7,6 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental validation of virtual torque sensing for wind turbine gearboxes based on strain measurements

Bosmans,

Gallas,

Smeets

et al. 2024

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In efforts to reduce the operation and maintenance cost of wind turbines, there is an increasing interest to monitor key turbine quantities such as the torque load on the gearbox. Monitoring the torque paves the way for the calculation of remaining useful lifetime, leading to cost reductions through improved reliability and maintenance planning.In order to avoid expensive direct torque sensors, this paper investigates the potential of virtual torque sensing, a technique based on 3 basic components: firstly, a set of non-intrusive sensors installed on the gearbox. Three groups of strain gauges on the gearbox as well an angular encoder are considered in this paper. Secondly, a physics-based model, capable of predicting the response of aforementioned sensors. These models are constructed with a purposeful balance between accuracy and computational cost. Model validation and updating are performed to ensure efficient and accurate prediction of the sensor output. Finally, an Augmented Extended Kalman Filter (AEKF) is used to combine the measured response with predictions from the model to infer the gearbox input torque. Since a key factor determining the performance of the AEKF is the tuning of the AEKF covariance matrices, multiple methods are introduced to systematically tune the covariance matrices.Experimental validation results show that the virtual torque sensor can detect the load torque with a Normalized Mean Absolute Error (NMAE) between 3 .41% to 7 .47% , depending on the sensor set. The influence of the amount of sensors used and the tuning method are also investigated.

show abstract

Validation of a wind turbine gearbox strain simulation model in service to virtual sensing

Bosmans

Kirchner

Croes

et al. 2023

Forsch Ingenieurwes

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Over the last decades, the use of wind power as a source of renewable power has increased, while the Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCoE) of wind power has fallen. In order to further drive down the LCoE, there is an increasing interest to monitor key turbine quantities in order to improve maintenance procedures and decrease downtime. In this paper, we focus on the indirect detection of one such key quantity, the torque load on the gearbox. In order to avoid expensive direct torque sensors, we study the potential of strain gauges installed on the gearbox housing as virtual torque sensors. Our results verify that the strain response is repeatable, torque-driven and predictable; which are the most important conditions for using the sensors in virtual load sensing. Next, we compare the measured strain response to simulated strain results obtained from a physics-based model. The model consists of a static FE model of the gearbox housing and a torsional model of the shafts and gears in the drivetrain. An optimisation approach selects the FE model node where the simulated strain best matches the measured strain. We conclude that the studied strain gauges are promising for model-based virtual sensing of the torque on the gearbox. Validierung eines Dehnungssimulationsmodells einesWindenergieanlagengetriebes im Dienst der virtuellen Sensorik Zusammenfassung Im Lauf der letzten Jahrzehnte hat die Nutzung der Windkraft als Quelle erneuerbarer Energie zugenommen, während die Stromgestehungskosten ("Levelized Cost of Electricity", LCoE) der Windkraft gesunken sind. Um die LCoE weiter zu senken, besteht ein zunehmendes Interesse daran, wichtige Schlüsselgrößen der Windenergieanlagen zu überwachen, um die Wartungsverfahren zu verbessern und Ausfallzeiten zu verkürzen. In diesem Beitrag konzentrieren wir uns auf die indirekte Erfassung einer solchen Schlüsselgröße, der Drehmomentbelastung des Getriebes. Um teure direkt-messende Drehmomentsensoren zu vermeiden, untersuchen wir das Potenzial von Dehnungsmessstreifen (DMS), die auf dem Getriebegehäuse als virtuelle Drehmomentsensoren installiert sind. Unsere Ergebnisse bestätigen, dass das Dehnungssignal wiederholbar, drehmomentgesteuert und vorhersagbar ist; dies sind die wichtigsten Voraussetzungen für den Einsatz der DMS als virtuelle Drehmomentsensoren. Weiterhin vergleichen wir das gemessene Dehnungssignal mit simulierten Dehnungssignalen, die von einem physikalischen Modell stammen. Das Modell besteht aus einem statischen FE-Modell des Getriebegehäuses und einem Torsionsmodell der Wellen und Zahnräder im Antriebsstrang der Windenergieanlage. Ein Optimierungsansatz wählt denjenigen Knoten des FE-Modells aus, bei dem das simulierte Dehnungssignal am besten mit dem gemessenen übereinstimmt. Wir schließen daraus, dass die untersuchten DMS vielversprechend für die modellbasierte virtuelle Erfassung des Drehmoments am Getriebe sind.

show abstract

On the Development of Offshore Wind Turbine Technology: An Assessment of Reliability Rates and Fault Detection Methods in a Changing Market

Cited by 8 publications

References 65 publications

Operations and Maintenance Cost Comparison Between 15 MW Direct-Drive and Medium-Speed Offshore Wind Turbines

Operations and Maintenance Cost Comparison Between 15 MW Direct-Drive and Medium-Speed Offshore Wind Turbines

Experimental validation of virtual torque sensing for wind turbine gearboxes based on strain measurements

Validation of a wind turbine gearbox strain simulation model in service to virtual sensing

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About