Calculation of the helical parallel transmission of a wind turbine gearbox

Abstract

The gearbox of a wind turbine is the component of greatest mechanical complexity and is responsible for most wind turbines operational downtime and for increased costs. It doesn’t reach a 20 years projected life. All the studies, until now, indicate that these failures arise from the design process. This work demonstrates some of the inadequacies of the current design standards of wind turbines gearboxes, through the realization of a comparison of the results of the calculation of the helical parallel transmission of an 2,5 ME wind turbine, carried out by three ways: ISO 6336:2006 Method B and AGMA 2101-D04 (Metric Edition) standards and by using numeric simulation. The results of this analysis are that there are no problems of strength or rigidity in both transmissions, however the differences between these three calculation methods are considerable.

Keywords

• wind turbine
• gearbox
• helical parallel transmissions