Abstract
The wind industry is showing increasing awareness about the importance of long-term direct shaft mechanical torque measurements to fully understand wind turbine (WT) dynamics, adopt proactive solutions for extreme load mitigation and enhance condition monitoring (CM) capabilities. Although torsional effects are important, torque measurement on such large, inaccessible machines is practically and logistically difficult, mainly because of the costly and intrusive specialised equipment currently available. This study details an experimental set-up for the investigation of shaft dynamic transient load and speed measurements through a contactless, low-cost torque meter. Results are obtained over a range of applied loads and compared with reference measurements from an in-line, invasive torque transducer. Average torque and speed root-mean-square error values of 0.53 Nm and 0.35 rpm, respectively, indicate good accuracy of the proposed contactless torque meter. Its implementation in the field would allow direct, cheap, real-time measurements of WT drive train loads for performance monitoring, control and CM purposes.
Highlights
As large-scale wind farms move further offshore, it is essential to keep a competitive cost of energy by achieving a high availability and capacity factor, and ensuring that loss of energy and wind turbine (WT) downtime are minimised
This paper presents the experimental investigation of a novel contactless, low-cost torque meter for shaft load and speed measurements, with a focus on tracking transient conditions for use in a CM systems (CMSs)
Experiments have been performed to emulate shaft dynamic transient loads experienced by a WT drive train, during anomalous wind speed fluctuations and control actions
Summary
As large-scale wind farms move further offshore, it is essential to keep a competitive cost of energy by achieving a high availability and capacity factor, and ensuring that loss of energy and wind turbine (WT) downtime are minimised. Unscheduled maintenance activity has been shown to account up to around 65% of O&M costs [2], resulting in unexpected WT downtime, reduced availability and lost revenue. Repair costs are not the only consequence of maintenance, as the WT downtime and revenue costs must be considered. These issues highlight the importance of O&M strategy within economic viability evaluation of large offshore wind farms. The adoption of cost-effective condition monitoring (CM) techniques is crucial in reducing O&M costs, avoiding catastrophic failures and minimising costly unscheduled maintenance. As the loading on the WT drive train components is highly variable, the study of transient conditions is fundamental to the development of reliable CM techniques
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