Wear in wind turbine pitch bearings—A comparative design study

authored by

Fabian Schwack, Fabian Halmos, Matthias Stammler, Gerhard Poll, Sergei Glavatskih

Abstract

We tested two types of ball bearings with an outer diameter of 750 mm to learn more about the challenges of oscillating motions for pitch bearings. The experimental conditions are derived from aero-elastic simulations, long-term wind speed measurements and a scaling method that considers loads and pitch angles. As a result, the parameters relevant for pitch bearings are represented appropriately, and the findings are transferable to other bearing sizes. For the tested parameter sets, severe wear occurred for over 90% of the exposed contact areas after 12 500 oscillating cycles. Decreasing the number of cycles to 1250 leads to a mix of exposed areas with 13% severe wear, 32% mild wear and 55% no wear, with no apparent pattern. The results demonstrate that a comparatively small amount of consecutive cycles can lead to severe wear. A new type of bearing tested showed less wear for the selected operating conditions.

Organisation(s)

Institute of Machine Elements and Engineering Design

External Organisation(s)

Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)
Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg)
Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems (IWES)
Ghent University
University of New South Wales (UNSW)

Type

Article

Journal

WIND ENERGY

Volume

25

Pages

700-718

No. of pages

19

ISSN

1095-4244

Publication date

28.03.2022

Publication status

Published

Peer reviewed

Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy

Electronic version(s)

https://doi.org/10.1002/we.2693 (Access: Open)