Reliability analysis of random aerodynamic torque of horizontal axis wind turbine

Abstract

This paper considers the reliability analysis of mechanical system, especially wind turbine system. Optimization of horizontal axis wind turbine performance is confronted by the aerodynamic complexities such as the instability of the energy source, randomness of loads. The objective of this work is to study the system reliability taking into account random input parameters of the aerodynamic part. It is assumed that the probability law distribution of random parameters is known. The influence of random input parameters on dynamic reliability is evaluated in this study. In order to improve product reliability, an efficient computational method based on the first- and the second-order reliability method (FORM/SORM) has been investigated. For more accuracy, results obtained by the proposed approximation methods are compared to Monte Carlo reference results. These three methods are developed in reliability approach to calculate the failure probability and the reliability index of the studied wind turbine system.