Dynamic analysis of wind turbine gearbox components

Abstract

This paper studies the dynamic response of a wind turbine gearbox under different excitation conditions. The proposed 4 degree-of-freedom (DOF) dynamic model takes into account the key factors such as the time-varying mesh stiffness, bearing stiffness, damping, static transmission error and gear backlash. Both the external excitation due to wind and the internal excitation due to the static transmission error are included to represent the gearbox excitation conditions. With the help of the time history and frequency spectrum, the dynamic responses of wind turbine gearbox components are investigated by using the numerical integration method. This paper explains under which conditions the fretting corrosion, as one of the wind turbine gearbox failure modes, may occur. Furthermore, it is observed that the external excitation fluctuation has large influence on the dynamic responses of both the gears and bearings.