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<p>Wind power constitutes a&#xa0;significant share in the German energy mix, and future increase is forecast. About 20% of the levelized cost of electricity for wind power stem from maintenance and repair efforts. Wind turbine main bearings are a&#xa0;component especially prone to failure with a&#xa0;failure probability of up to 30% over the wind turbine design lifetime. The current commercially available generation of wind turbines exclusively use rolling element bearings as main bearings. Their exchange or repair is very elaborate as they require a&#xa0;dismantling of the rotor.</p><p>At present there are efforts within industry and science to explore plain bearings as a&#xa0;possible alternative to rolling element bearings as wind turbine main bearings. Segmented plain bearings promise reduced repair costs as their segments can be exchanged individually in case of damage or failure without dismantling of the rotor. Three such plain bearing concepts (HydroLa, FlexPad and Z‑Pad) were developed. FlexPad features stationary sliding segments with a&#xa0;flexible support structure. The FlexPad however, demonstrated challenges for upscaling towards multi-megawatt turbines regarding e.g. its maintenance. To address the maintenance challenge, the Z‑Pad was developed. Z‑Pad features its sliding segments on the rotating shaft. Thus, allowing for easier access of the sliding segments. As with the FlexPad bearing no standardised design process exists. However, a&#xa0;process can be developed analogues to the FlexPad design approach. The proposed design process follows the following steps parameter space definition, sampling, elasto-hydrodynamic simulations, surrogate model creation and lastly mathematical optimisation. This study aims to evaluate the underlying parameter set for the future design process. Results from a&#xa0;systematic sensitivity analysis are explored, highlighting the design influence of individual parameters. The study shows, that during design the global design parameters can no longer be considered concurrently with the parameters governing the bearings flexibility. Moreover, unnecessary design features are identified and removed.</p>

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Investigation into the design of a novel conical plain bearing concept with enhanced serviceability

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2025年2月11日

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  • Jan Euler,
  • Georg Jacobs,
  • Urs Zweiffel,
  • Timm Jakobs,
  • Thomas Decker,
  • Julian Röder

摘要

Wind power constitutes a significant share in the German energy mix, and future increase is forecast. About 20% of the levelized cost of electricity for wind power stem from maintenance and repair efforts. Wind turbine main bearings are a component especially prone to failure with a failure probability of up to 30% over the wind turbine design lifetime. The current commercially available generation of wind turbines exclusively use rolling element bearings as main bearings. Their exchange or repair is very elaborate as they require a dismantling of the rotor.

At present there are efforts within industry and science to explore plain bearings as a possible alternative to rolling element bearings as wind turbine main bearings. Segmented plain bearings promise reduced repair costs as their segments can be exchanged individually in case of damage or failure without dismantling of the rotor. Three such plain bearing concepts (HydroLa, FlexPad and Z‑Pad) were developed. FlexPad features stationary sliding segments with a flexible support structure. The FlexPad however, demonstrated challenges for upscaling towards multi-megawatt turbines regarding e.g. its maintenance. To address the maintenance challenge, the Z‑Pad was developed. Z‑Pad features its sliding segments on the rotating shaft. Thus, allowing for easier access of the sliding segments. As with the FlexPad bearing no standardised design process exists. However, a process can be developed analogues to the FlexPad design approach. The proposed design process follows the following steps parameter space definition, sampling, elasto-hydrodynamic simulations, surrogate model creation and lastly mathematical optimisation. This study aims to evaluate the underlying parameter set for the future design process. Results from a systematic sensitivity analysis are explored, highlighting the design influence of individual parameters. The study shows, that during design the global design parameters can no longer be considered concurrently with the parameters governing the bearings flexibility. Moreover, unnecessary design features are identified and removed.