• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.23-32
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• 2020

The wind turbine gearbox has the longest downtime among other major turbine components such as blades, generators, and main bearings. Therefore, gearbox manufacturers conduct rig tests to evaluate conformity in terms of design and function. Rig tests, however, have limited similarity compared with atmospheric wind turbine operating conditions. Rig test conditions are thoroughly controlled and maintained by testers and the component certificates of gearboxes issued through the test cannot fulfill wind farm operator's requirements. Hence, certification bodies such as DNV-GL and UL require a mandatory gearbox field test report for type certification. The Korea Energy Agency (KEA) also introduced gearbox field test as a part of the KS type certificate in 2016, although it is optional . In this paper, gearbox field test procedures and requirements are introduced, and the first domestic application case of the test is reported. The field test was conducted with a 1.5 MW wind turbine gearbox located in Jeju as the test object.

• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.16-21
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• 2024

The yaw gearbox is a key device in a wind power generator that improves power generation efficiency by rotating hundreds of tons (400 to 600 tons) of nacelle so that the blade reaches 90 degrees in the wind direction. Recently, installation sites have been advancing from land to sea as they have become super-large at (8-12) MW to increase the economic feasibility of wind power generators and utilize excellent wind resources, and the target life of large wind power generators is 25 to 30 years. The yaw gearbox of 6 to 12 sets is installed in a very complex place inside the nacelle on the tower with parallels, and it is important to secure the reliability of the yaw gearbox because if a failure occurs after installation, it costs tens to hundreds of times the price of a new product to restore. In this study, equivalent loads were calculated by analyzing failure mode and field data, accelerated life test conditions were established, and a test device was constructed to perform the accelerated life tests and performance tests to ensure the reliability of the gearbox.