Condition monitoring of critical components in wind turbines
Wind turbines are subject to extreme mechanical stress. Condition Monitoring Systems help to ensure the stability, the service life and optimal design of wind turbine components such as rotor blades, drivetrains, inverters and monopiles. Condition monitoring prevents expensive failures and thus allows significant cost savings.
Gearbox-failure represents a big part of the downtime of wind turbines. Therefore, gaining reliability is key. Efficiency is also important in the drivetrain. Continuous measurements can be used as a tool to increase both, because they offer the opportunity to keep track of the component’s condition, to detect potential breakdowns and damages in time and to extend the life cycle.
Condition Monitoring Solutions
HBK has developed a Condition Monitoring System (CMS) for wind turbines by putting together a range of precision sensors and instruments for testing and monitoring wind turbine components.
- Complete solutions for test bench applications including torque and force measurements with traceability in the Meganewtonmeter (NMm) and Meganewton (MN) range.
- High-precision torque transducers for maximum torque requirements (up to 5 MNm).
- Electrical strain gauges and/or optical strain sensors combined with data acquisition systems for fatigue testing of monopiles, rotor blades and high-voltage components.
- High-end power analysers to qualify inverters according to EN61400-21:2008 Wind turbines.
- nCode professional software to perform fatigue analysis throughout the design of wind turbine components.
- WindMETER, a reliable optical monitoring solution specifically designed to monitor wind generator blades.
Depending on the country, on-site installation support is also provided by a certified team of skilled Project Engineers.
Track Record
HBK has been working on many large wind farm projects, primarily in the North Sea, but also in many other countries. HBK has proved to be a reliable partner by providing a range of services from installations in rotor blades, monopiles and jackets of simple strain gauges to commissioning complex CMS packages including inclinometers, accelerometers and HBM’s DAQ systems.
More information: www.hbm.com.