Wind turbine drivetrains: state-of-the-art technologies and future development trends

Abstract

Abstract. This paper presents the state-of-the-art technologies and development trends of wind turbine drivetrains – the energy conversion systems transferring the kinetic energy of the wind to electrical energy – in different stages of their life cycle: design, manufacturing, installation, operation, lifetime extension, decommissioning, and recycling. Offshore development and digitalization are also a focal point in this study. The main aim of this article is to review the drivetrain technology development as well as to identify future challenges and research gaps. Drivetrain in this context includes the whole power conversion system: main bearing, shafts, gearbox, generator, and power converter. The paper discusses current design technologies for each component along with advantages and disadvantages. The discussion of the operation phase highlights the condition monitoring methods currently employed by the industry as well as emerging areas. This article also illustrates the multidisciplinary aspect of wind turbine drivetrains, which emphasizes the need for more interdisciplinary research and collaboration.

The detection of generator bearing failures on wind turbines using machine learning based anomaly detection

“…ARIMA, OLS, CUSUM), makes it possible to detect generator bearing failures with a high accuracy. Further information on the current state-of-the-art can be found in [22], [23].…”

Wind Turbine Drivetrain Reliability and Wind Plant Operations and Maintenance Research and Development Opportunities

“…Wind turbine gearboxes used in horizontal axis wind turbine drivetrains continue to grow in size to up to three meters in diameter, power up to 15 MW, and torque-density of 200 newton-meters per kilogram (Vaes, Clement, and Lindstedt 2021;Daners and Nickel 2021;ZF 2021;Winergy 2021;Nejad et al 2021). They are designed for a minimum 20-year design life as specified in the IEC 61400-4 and AGMA 6006 gearbox design standards.…”

Modelling of wind turbine gear stages for Digital Twin and real-time virtual sensing using bond graphs

“…Hence, state-of-the-art multi-body simulation (MBS) models of wind turbine drivetrains including virtual test benches [8] and academic reference models [9,10] are generally not capable of real-time simulation. Developing efficient Reduced Order Models (ROM) is identified as one of the major challenges in Predictive Maintenance and Condition Monitoring [11]. ROM are constructed either as data-driven surrogate models [12] or by physical simplification.…”