Condition monitoring system and wind power generation system comprising the same

• US 10,047,726 B2
• Filed: 07/09/2015
• Issued: 08/14/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: NTN Corporation
• Original Assignee: NTN Corporation
• Inventors: Sakaguchi, Tomoya
• Primary Examiner(s): Kirkland, III, Freddie
• Application Number:
  US15/329,788
• Publication Number:
  US 20170234304A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,132 Days
• CPC Class Codes: F03D 17/00 Monitoring or testing of wind motors, e.g. diagnostics testing during commissioning of wind motors F03D13/30
• CPC Class Codes: F03D 7/0204 for orientation in relation to wind direction
• CPC Class Codes: F03D 7/042 by means of an electrical or electronic controller
• CPC Class Codes: F03D 80/70 Bearing or lubricating arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: F03D 9/25 the apparatus being an electrical generator F03D9/22 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2240/50 Bearings
• CPC Class Codes: F05D 2260/80 Diagnostics
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 15/14 Testing gas-turbine engines or jet-propulsion engines
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/72 Wind turbines with rotation axis in wind direction

Abstract

A condition monitoring system for a wind turbine comprises: a sensor which senses a condition of a yaw bearing; a monitor device which generates a diagnosis parameter based on a detection result of the sensor; a sensor which senses a rotating angular velocity of a nacelle and that of a main shaft; and a data server which diagnoses a failure of the yaw bearing based on the diagnosis parameter. The data server diagnoses whether the yaw bearing has a failure, based on a variation of the diagnosis parameter from an initial value thereof when the nacelle has a rotating angular velocity within a non-zero, first prescribed range and the main shaft has a rotating angular velocity within a second prescribed range.

Claims

1. A condition monitoring system configured to monitor a condition of equipment included in a wind turbine, the wind turbine including:

a blade for converting wind power to rotation torque;

a main shaft receiving the rotation torque;

a power generator converting the rotation torque into electric power;

a nacelle provided on top of a tower and housing the main shaft and the power generator therein; and

a yaw bearing turnably supporting the nacelle on the top of the tower, the condition monitoring system comprising;

a first detector configured to detect the condition of the equipment;

a monitor device configured to generate a diagnosis parameter based on a detection result of the first detector;

a controller configured to diagnose a failure of the equipment based on the diagnosis parameter;

a second detector configured to detect a rotation speed of the nacelle; and

a third detector configured to detect a rotation speed of the main shaft,

the controller being configured to diagnose whether the yaw bearing has a failure, based on a variation of the diagnosis parameter from an initial value thereof when the nacelle has a rotation speed within a first prescribed range excluding zero and when the main shaft has a rotation speed within a second prescribed range.

2. The condition monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to diagnose whether the yaw bearing has a failure, based on a variation of the diagnosis parameter from an initial value thereof when the nacelle has a rotation speed within the first prescribed range and when the main shaft has a rotation speed of substantially zero.

3. The condition monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the controller is further configured to:

(i) correct the diagnosis parameter based on a detection result of the third detector obtained when the nacelle has a rotation speed within the first prescribed range, and

(ii) diagnose whether the yaw bearing has a failure based on a variation of the corrected diagnosis parameter from an initial value thereof.

4. The condition monitoring system according to claim 3, wherein:

the controller is configured to correct the diagnosis parameter by using a first correction function with a rotation speed of the main shaft used as a variable; and

the first correction function is a function which corrects the diagnosis parameter so that as the main shaft has a higher rotation speed, a ratio of the diagnosis parameter after the correction to the diagnosis parameter before the correction is smaller.

5. The condition monitoring system according to claim 4, wherein the first correction function is a function of a dimensionless diagnosis parameter obtained by dividing the diagnosis parameter by a diagnosis parameter obtained while the main shaft does not rotate, and

the first correction function uses as the variable a dimensionless rotation speed of the main shaft obtained by dividing a rotation speed of the main shaft by a maximum speed thereof.

6. The condition monitoring system according to claim 4, wherein the controller is configured to calculate an average value of a rotation speed of the main shaft in a prescribed period before the diagnosis, and correct a diagnosis parameter using the first correction function based on the average value.

7. The condition monitoring system according to claim 4, wherein:

the controller is further configured to correct the diagnosis parameter by using a second correction function using as a variable an amount of electric power generated by the power generator; and

the second correction function is a function which corrects the diagnosis parameter so that as the power generator generates a larger amount of electric power, a ratio of the diagnosis parameter after the correction by the second correction function to the diagnosis parameter before the correction by the second correction function is smaller.

8. The condition monitoring system according to claim 7, wherein only when a rotation speed of the main shaft reaches an upper limit, the controller is further configured to correct the diagnosis parameter by using the second correction function.

9. The condition monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the first detector is provided in a vicinity of the yaw bearing and detects a condition of the yaw bearing.

10. The condition monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to diagnose the failure of the equipment, based on the diagnosis parameter obtained when a rotation speed of the nacelle obtained from information from SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) falls within the first prescribed range, the SCADA separately monitoring the wind turbine.

11. The condition monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the second detector includes an azimuth sensor.

12. The condition monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the second detector includes a gyro sensor.

13. The condition monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the second detector includes a GPS (Global Positioning System).

14. The condition monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the second detector includes a detector to detect at least one of a driving current and a driving voltage of a drive device driving the nacelle.

15. A wind power generation system comprising:

a wind turbine; and

the condition monitoring system according to claim 1.