Planetary Load Sharing in Three-Point Mounted Wind Turbine Gearboxes: A Design and Test Comparison

Jonathan Keller; Yi Guo; Zhiwei Zhang; Doug Lucas

doi:10.2172/1351159

Planetary Load Sharing in Three-Point Mounted Wind Turbine Gearboxes: A Design and Test Comparison

Jonathan Keller, Yi Guo, Zhiwei Zhang, Doug Lucas

National Wind Technology Center

Research output: NREL › Technical Report

Abstract

This work compares the planetary load-sharing characteristics of wind turbine gearboxes supported by cylindrical roller bearings (CRBs) and preloaded tapered roller bearings (TRBs) when subjected to rotor moments. Planetary bearing loads were measured in field-representative dynamometer tests and compared to loads predicted by finite-element models. Preloaded TRBs significantly improved load sharing. In pure torque conditions, the upwind planet bearing load in the gearbox with preloaded TRBs was only 14% more than the assumed load compared to 47% more for the gearbox with CRBs. Consequently, the predicted fatigue life of the complete set of planetary bearings for the gearbox with preloaded TRBs is 3.5 times greater than that of the gearbox with CRBs.

Original language	American English
Number of pages	20
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.2172/1351159
State	Published - 2017

NREL Publication Number

NREL/TP-5000-67394

Keywords

gearbox
load-sharing
NREL
planetary bearing
testing
wind turbine

Access to Document

10.2172/1351159

https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy17osti/67394.pdf

Cite this

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title = "Planetary Load Sharing in Three-Point Mounted Wind Turbine Gearboxes: A Design and Test Comparison",

abstract = "This work compares the planetary load-sharing characteristics of wind turbine gearboxes supported by cylindrical roller bearings (CRBs) and preloaded tapered roller bearings (TRBs) when subjected to rotor moments. Planetary bearing loads were measured in field-representative dynamometer tests and compared to loads predicted by finite-element models. Preloaded TRBs significantly improved load sharing. In pure torque conditions, the upwind planet bearing load in the gearbox with preloaded TRBs was only 14% more than the assumed load compared to 47% more for the gearbox with CRBs. Consequently, the predicted fatigue life of the complete set of planetary bearings for the gearbox with preloaded TRBs is 3.5 times greater than that of the gearbox with CRBs.",

keywords = "gearbox, load-sharing, NREL, planetary bearing, testing, wind turbine",

author = "Jonathan Keller and Yi Guo and Zhiwei Zhang and Doug Lucas",

year = "2017",

doi = "10.2172/1351159",

language = "American English",

type = "Other",

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T1 - Planetary Load Sharing in Three-Point Mounted Wind Turbine Gearboxes: A Design and Test Comparison

AU - Keller, Jonathan

AU - Guo, Yi

AU - Zhang, Zhiwei

AU - Lucas, Doug

PY - 2017

Y1 - 2017

N2 - This work compares the planetary load-sharing characteristics of wind turbine gearboxes supported by cylindrical roller bearings (CRBs) and preloaded tapered roller bearings (TRBs) when subjected to rotor moments. Planetary bearing loads were measured in field-representative dynamometer tests and compared to loads predicted by finite-element models. Preloaded TRBs significantly improved load sharing. In pure torque conditions, the upwind planet bearing load in the gearbox with preloaded TRBs was only 14% more than the assumed load compared to 47% more for the gearbox with CRBs. Consequently, the predicted fatigue life of the complete set of planetary bearings for the gearbox with preloaded TRBs is 3.5 times greater than that of the gearbox with CRBs.

AB - This work compares the planetary load-sharing characteristics of wind turbine gearboxes supported by cylindrical roller bearings (CRBs) and preloaded tapered roller bearings (TRBs) when subjected to rotor moments. Planetary bearing loads were measured in field-representative dynamometer tests and compared to loads predicted by finite-element models. Preloaded TRBs significantly improved load sharing. In pure torque conditions, the upwind planet bearing load in the gearbox with preloaded TRBs was only 14% more than the assumed load compared to 47% more for the gearbox with CRBs. Consequently, the predicted fatigue life of the complete set of planetary bearings for the gearbox with preloaded TRBs is 3.5 times greater than that of the gearbox with CRBs.

KW - gearbox

KW - load-sharing

KW - NREL

KW - planetary bearing

KW - testing

KW - wind turbine

U2 - 10.2172/1351159

DO - 10.2172/1351159

M3 - Technical Report

ER -

Planetary Load Sharing in Three-Point Mounted Wind Turbine Gearboxes: A Design and Test Comparison

Abstract

NREL Publication Number

Keywords

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