Bearings are parts that support and guide rotating or oscillating elements, such asaxles or wheels, and transfer loads between machine components. They offer reduced friction and therefore allow high rotational speeds while reducing noise,heat, energy consumption, and wear. No matter the model of wind turbine, bearings are often a problem in all of them. The…
While the rotation of the rotor of the wind turbine can be slowed by changing the pitch angle of the blades during aerodynamic braking, the rotor needs a mechanical main shaft brake to keep it stopped completely. Frictional force is an essential physics concept that will help explain the working mechanism of the main shaft…
When a gearbox vibrates as a whole, the severity of the vibration can be detected at the outer surface of the gearbox housing. While some vibration is normal, higher levels of vibration can be caused by the wearing or failure of the gearbox components. For this reason, gearboxes often incorporate vibration sensors to detect conditions…
Three different types of forces act on gears and bearings in a gearbox. They are gravitational forces, frictional forces, and contact forces. The most significant are contact forces, due to the magnitude of the contact stresses that these forces are generating on the surfaces of the moving parts during operation. Contact force occurs when the…
Heat is generated during the operation of the gearbox due to friction between the solid surfaces of the moving parts. Most of the heat is generated by the friction between the gear teeth, and between the rollers and rings of the bearings. Depending on the type of the engaging gears, the input torque and speed,…
The blades, the hub, and the main shaft of a wind turbine harness the kinetic energy of the wind and convert it into rotational mechanical energy. The speed of this rotation is too slow to drive the generator efficiently, so a gearbox converts the high-torque and low-speed mechanical energy of the main shaft into the…