Exploring the Causes of Power-Converter Failure in Wind Turbines based on Comprehensive Field-Data and Damage Analysis

Abstract

Power converters are among the most frequently failing components of wind turbines. Despite their massive economic impact, the actual causes and mechanisms underlying these failures have remained in the dark for many years. In view of this situation, a large consortium of three research institutes and 16 companies, including wind-turbine and component manufacturers, operators and maintenance-service providers has joined forces to identify the main causes and driving factors of the power-converter failures in wind turbines to create a basis for effective remedial measures. The present paper summarizes and discusses the results of this research initiative, which have been achieved through the evaluation of converter-specific failure and operating data of a large and diverse worldwide wind-turbine fleet, field measurements as well as post-mortem investigation of returned converter components. A key conclusion of the work is that the thermal-cycling induced fatigue of bond-chip contacts and die-attach solder, which is a known issue in other fields of power-electronics applications and which has been widely assumed to be the principle damage mechanisms also in wind turbines, is no relevant contributor to the observed converter failures in this application. Instead, the results indicate that environmental factors such as humidity and contamination but also design and quality issues as well as human errors play an important part in the incidence of these failures.

Reliability assessment of composite power systems containing sea wave slot‐coned generators

“…The failure and repair rates associated with the composed components of the studied SSG converter can be obtained from the manufacturer information. However, due to the lack of reliable data, the failure and repair rates of different components can be determined as presented in [17][18][19][20]. Based on the reliability data obtained for different components, in this paper, the equivalent failure and repair rates of the SSG converter are considered to be 2 and 98 times per year, respectively.…”

Frequency Response Analysis Technique of Short Circuit Faults Detection in Photovoltaic Single-Phase Inverter Experimental Study

“…A fault in any component of a power conversion chain can result in a partial or total loss of system control and an unplanned maintenance leading to significant production losses. In other situations, these faults can lead to disastrous consequences and risks for personnel, facilities, and the environment, especially when the systems are integrated into safety-relevant facilities such as transport, health, power grids, robotics, or nuclear power plants [7].…”

Lifetime Analysis of IGBT Power Modules in Passively Cooled Tidal Turbine Converters

“…Multiple studies have identified converters as one of the most frequently failing subsystem in WTs [3,4]. Among converter components, phase modules (insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs), gate-drive circuits, capacitors) were found to be more critical in terms of failure frequency [3,5,6].…”

“…Thermal cycling is not the only failure mechanism in IGBT modules. Fischer et al [5] identified ambient humidity and moisture as the dominant failure mechanism in WT converters. However, in their study majority of the converters were liquid-cooled.…”