Vibration Dynamics of a Wind Turbine Drive Train High Speed Subsystem: Modelling and Validation

Modern wind turbines are enormous large-scale electromechanical systems. They operate in complex conditions, determined by a turbulent wind field, by possible disturbances in the electricity grid and by the behavior of sea waves for offshore turbines. Guaranteeing the structural integrity of these machines during a lifetime of 20 years is an enormous challenge. In this paper the dynamics of a wind turbine drive train high speed subsystem is studied both by modeling and experiments with focus on system torsional and flexural vibrations and transient events which can reduce fatigue life of functional components (gearbox, bearings, shafts, couplings, others). A scaled down drive train high speed shaft test rig has been developed. Main components of the test rig are six-pole motor with variable frequency drive controller (up to 1000 rpm), shafts’ disk coupling and flexible mounting structure representing gearbox housing with output high speed bearing. The test rig is equipped with measurement system comprising a set of accelerometers and displacement sensors, data acquisition hardware and software (SKF WindCon3.0). Mathematical and computational models of the test rig have been developed and went through validation tests. The system kinematic and dynamic responses are studied for different operational scenarios and structural parameters (ratio of shaft bending stiffness and stiffness of mounting structures, unevenly inertia load distribution, others). The ultimate goal of the test rig is to get insight into interaction between internal dynamics of drive train functional components to be used the results obtained in developing novel methods to detect, predict and prevent faults and failures in wind turbine drive trains arising due to misalignments and transient external loads.