Analyzing wind turbine flow interaction through vibration data

Abstract

Wind turbines commonly undergo non-stationary flow and, not rarely, even rather extreme phenomena. In particular, rough terrains represent a challenging testing ground, because of the combination of terrain-driven flow and wakes. It is therefore crucial to assess the impact of dynamic loads on the turbines. In this work, tower and drive-train vibrations are analyzed, from a subcluster of four turbines of a wind farm sited in a very complex terrain. The main outcome of the study is that it is possible to start from the analysis of wind conditions and interpret how wakes manifest in the vibrations of the turbines, both at structural level (tower vibrations) and at the drive-train level. This wind to gear approach therefore allows to build a connection between a flow phenomenon and a mechanical phenomenon (vibrations) and can be precious to assess loads in different working conditions.