Dynamics embedded softly

The rapid developments in wind turbines should not mislead us to overlook the fact that often in turbines, particularly of high performance categories, technical faults and even damages occur in various elements of the drivelines (gears, couplings and bearings), which in drivelines of comparable size in other industries or branches of industry (e.g. heavy rolling mill drives) have so far been unknown.

The main reason for this, on the one hand, lies in the fact that the basic support structure of a wind turbine consisting of tower and nacelle are very elastic and in combination with the rotor presents an extremely oscillation-susceptible system. On the other hand, the quick growth of the industry in the past few years has certainly also brought forth problems, as neither an extensive operational experience with varying-sized turbines nor enough expertise, especially in the area of turbine drive trains, with the use today of large-sized components could be gathered.

After the experience of the past few years, with many failures, above all in the area of drivelines, increasingly greater importance is attached to reliability. Servicing and repairs of wind turbines are as a consequence of the difficult accessibility expensive and time consuming. Downtimes resulting therefrom reduce not only the energy yield but also diminish the net return. A reliable but nonetheless economic interpretation requires an exact knowledge of the operating loads and a safe protection from overloads. With the planned offshore turbines, reliability will gain a still further importance.

The objective of the two-day conference “Drivelines in wind power installations„ is to inform the delegates about the basic structure of wind turbines and the resulting demands put on the main driveline. Based on current damage images possibilities will be presented of stress and strain related assessments of gears, shafts and bearings in transmissions, taking into account the occurring dynamic loads. Modern methods for diagnosis of oscillations during operations as well as presentations on the current drive concepts and tribology round up the event.

The conference “Drivelines in wind power installations” will be held on 22 – 23 March 2011 at Haus der Technik in Essen and is aimed at Developers, designers of the manufacturers and suppliers, staff of the operators and power utilities, insurances, banks and experts. Simultaneous translation German/English will be provided during the symposium. Detailed seminar programme can be acquired from Haus der Technik e.V., tel +49.(0)201.1803 344 (Ms Andrea Wiese), E-Mail: information@hdt-essen.de or over the internet: www.my-windenergy.com, http://www.hdt-essen.de/htd/veranstaltungen/W-H010-03-392-1.html