Optimal Maintenance Interval for Wind Turbine Gearbox

Abstract

A maintenance interval optimization model for wind turbine gearbox considering the maximization component profit per unit time was presented in this paper. First, the principle and configuration of gearbox were introduced, and the failure characteristic is analyzed as well as the failure rate distribution of components in gearbox. Then, the concept of component income coefficient λ and element utilizing rate per unit time U(t) were given. λ describes the proportion that component takes up the total income of wind turbine electric power sale，and U(t) represents the average income per unit time to wind turbine electric power sale during 0~t. Based on above two concepts the model of optimizing maintenance interval was proposed. Last, the paper used the proposed method to evaluate wind turbine gearbox maintenance interval in an actual wind farm. The simulating results indicates that the component profits per unit time for gears, intermediate speed shaft bearings and high speed shaft bearings increases by 16.88%, 30.26% and 32.59% respectively.

New Tendencies in Wind Energy Operation and Maintenance

“…Bala et al [29] presented the approaches to achieve reliability at the component level and at the level of electrical components. A model of the optimizing maintenance interval for the wind turbine gearbox considering the profit maximization component per unit time is presented in [42]. Kostandyan and Sørensen [43] considered a failure mode with a corresponding limit state in relation to estimating the reliability, considering failures, for example, due to a fault in an electrical component or loss of grid.…”

“…There are many types of analysis of maintenance optimization, but many of the research works found are based on optimizing the maintenance of the equipment found inside a wind turbine with different techniques, for example, the analysis of the inspection interval and cost maintenance in gearboxes [73] to obtain optimal maintenance policies, and another optimization method for gearbox maintenance is the given profit maximization [42] of each component per unit time. Studies are also carried out on power generation efficiency analysis [44] connected to a single large power converter operated with variable frequencies, considering wake effects.…”

Maintenance optimization and inspection planning of wind energy assets: Models, methods and strategies

“…Besnard and Bertling [30] presented an approach for optimization of the inspection interval and condition monitoring strategies for a blade whose deterioration is classified according to the severity of damages. In another work, Deng et al [50] proposed a maintenance optimization model to determine the inspection interval for wind turbine gearbox such that the mean profit per unit time was maximized. Igba et al [154] developed an approach for evaluating the effect of preventive maintenance (PM) interval on reliability and O&M costs of wind turbine gearbox.…”

“…improving the reliability, efficiency, and power output) have been discussed in [165]. The readers can also refer to [20,43,50,59,86,87,132,148,151,173,186,209,216,221] for further studies on reliability/availability analysis of wind farms.…”

“…Nilsson [195] proposed an MIP model to optimize the maintenance management of wind farms based on a linear cost function including the maintenance expenses and production losses. For further studies on operations research models, see [41,47,50,55,69,71,77,100,168,197,200].…”