Parallel wind turbine powertrains and their design for high availability

McDonald, Alasdair and Jimmy, Godwin (2016) Parallel wind turbine powertrains and their design for high availability. IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy. ISSN 1949-3037 (https://doi.org/10.1109/TSTE.2016.2627607)

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Abstract

Conventional wind turbine powertrains tend to use single-input-single-output topologies (i.e. one gearbox coupled to a generator with a power converter). Here powertrains with single-input-multiple-output subsystems are analyzed with Markov state space models in order to quantify any improvements in availability. A baseline powertrain's availability and that of different parallel powertrains are evaluated using wind turbine powertrain failure and repair rate data. The results show that an increase in the number of parallel systems, N, does not automatically lead to a higher availability for a wind turbine powertrain; however when failure and repair rates scale with module power ratings then there is an improvement. The designer can further improve availability by over-rating each parallel module. The net benefit of parallel powertrains depends both on the turbine and the type of powertrain technology.

ORCID iDs

McDonald, Alasdair ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2238-3589 and Jimmy, Godwin ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2264-8767;
  • Item type:Article
    ID code:58545
    Dates:
    Date
    Event
    10 November 2016
    Published
    10 November 2016
    Published Online
    3 November 2016
    Accepted
    Notes:© 2016 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.
    Subjects:Technology > Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
    Department:Faculty of Engineering > Electronic and Electrical Engineering
    Depositing user: Pure Administrator
    Date deposited:09 Nov 2016 12:57
    Last modified:11 Nov 2024 11:33
    Related URLs:
    URI:https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/58545
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