Wind turbine generator bearing failure

What is a bearing failure in a wind turbine?

Bearing failures in wind turbines are a major cause of downtime in energy production for unplanned maintenance, repairs and replacements. This failure type is a primary cost and results in higher operations and maintenance (O&M) costs for the energy operator and in higher utility bills for the customer.

How often do wind turbine bearings fail?

The characteristic frequency of failures in wind turbine bearings regularly varies with the location of the damage, and both the magnitude and amplitude of the characteristic frequency imply the occurrence of failures . Common faults with wind power bearings include fatigue, wear, cracks, dents, and corrosion.

Are wind turbine main bearings a problem?

The same challenges remain for wind turbine main bearings. For wind turbine adjustment system bearings, such as blade bearings and yaw bearings, there are only very limited researches for their condition monitoring and fault diagnosis.

What are common faults with wind power bearings?

Common faults with wind power bearings include fatigue, wear, cracks, dents, and corrosion. Since the difference in the waveform amplitude of the fault characteristic frequency indicates the degree and modes of failure, the failure of different parts will also have different waveforms .

What causes wind turbine gearbox failures?

Some of the statistics generated based on this database are made publicly available and this release is an effort to disseminate the database information to a broader audience. According to the latest statistics from the database, the majority of wind turbine gearbox failures (76%) are caused by the bearings.

Do large-scale wind turbine bearings have fault diagnosis methods?

Then, condition monitoring and fault diagnosis methods of large-scale wind turbine bearings are presented; within which failure modes, experimental scale and signal processing approaches are summarized.