Abstract
Gear contact fatigue has becoming a bottleneck restricting the safety and reliability of wind turbine transmission systems. Tooth interior fatigue fracture (TIFF) failure is commonly observed in case-hardened wind turbine gears. In this work, a contact fatigue model is developed to investigate the effect of design parameters and material properties on TIFF of wind turbine gears. The sub-surface stress field is obtained by superposing the load-introduced stress and initial residual stress. The hardness gradient of the hardened layer is measured by Vickers hardness tests. Based upon the stress field and material properties, a fatigue parameter analysis is presented to characterize the risk of TIFF by using the Dang Van multiaxial fatigue criterion. Results show that the risk of TIFF increases with increasing external load. Increasing pressure angle and residual compressive stress could reduce TIFF risk. The combination of high surface hardness, low core hardness, and large effective case depth could inhibit the crack initiation.
Highlights
Wind turbines are usually installed on wild fields or offshore
In addition to the above typical contact failure types is tooth fatigue interior fracture (TIFF) failure, as reported in heavy-duty wind turbine gearboxes, which is significantly different from pitting and tooth breakage
The effects of external load, geometry parameters, and material properties on fatigue performance provide guidance to the engineering design for improving the service performance of wind turbine are discussed
Summary
Wind turbines are usually installed on wild fields or offshore. The service life of wind turbines reaches up to 20–30 years, which is a significant challenge to the design and maintenance. Al et al [10] summarized the calculation method of TIFF into four steps: stress elastic–plastic contact frame with analysis, continuous damage mechanics They pointed outand that failure gear contact history analysis, residual stress multiaxial fatigue criterion selection, risk fatigue is usually by 6336-4 the cyclic strainsmethod, under aHein wideetrange of studied load conditions. They suggested that sub-surface contact fatigue should focus on both the risk of pitting and TIFF in the case–core transition area of case-hardened gears He et al [15] investigated the contact fatigue behavior on heavy-duty conditions by using a developed damage-coupled elastic–plastic contact frame with continuous damage mechanics. Design for improving the service performance of wind turbine gears
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