Evaluation of Working Temperature in Wind Turbine Bearings by Simulation of Lubricant Level

Abstract

After studies related to the technical state and behavior of the temperatures manifested by the bearings of the generators that make up the Goldwind wind turbines models S50-750, installed in the Gibara II Wind Farm (PE). It was identified and validated as a tool that enables early diagnosis of anomalous bearing behaviors, SolidWorks (SW) computer-aided design and engineering software (CAD-CAE) and the Flow Simulation add-on. Since it allows studies based on the computational fluid dynamics (CFD), of the temperatures that are manifested in the lubricant during the different working regimes of the generator. The studies carried out evaluated the environmental conditions of exploitation in Cuba. It works on obtaining and predicting the values of the thermal state using the principles and methods for the calculation of heat transfer, the forecast statistics apply. The research supports its theories and postulates in a sample of 6 installed equipment, from China, for it had a historical database that collects temperature measurements in different working conditions which allowed to establish correlation between theoretical predictions and real behaviors.