Method and apparatus for vibration-based automatic condition monitoring of a wind turbine

• US 8,066,486 B2
• Filed: 12/02/2008
• Issued: 11/29/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/19/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: KK Wind Solutions Vojens A/S
• Original Assignee: Siemens AG
• Inventors: Christinsen, Axel Juhl, Gram-Hansen, Klaus, Moeller, Troels Kildemoes
• Primary Examiner(s): CHU, CHRIS C
• Application Number:
  US12/315,309
• Publication Number:
  US 20090162186A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,092 Days
• Field of Search: 416/35, 416/144, 416/145, 416/204.R, 416/500, 415/1, 415/15, 367/13, 290/44, 290/55, 324/76.13, 324/207.12, 324/318
• US Class Current: 416/145
• CPC Class Codes: G01H 1/06 Frequency
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/024 Quantitative history assessment, e.g. mathematical relationships between available data; Functions therefor; Principal component analysis [PCA]; Partial least square [PLS]; Statistical classifiers, e.g. Bayesian networks, linear regression or correlation analysis; Neural networks

Abstract

Method and apparatus for vibration-based automatic condition monitoring of a wind turbine, comprising the steps of: determining a set of vibration measurement values of the wind turbine; calculating a frequency spectrum of the set of vibration measurement values; calculating a cepstrum of the frequency spectrum; selecting at least one quefrency in the cepstrum, and detecting an alarm condition based upon an amplitude of the cepstrum at the selected quefrency, and a wind turbine therefor.

Claims

1. A method for vibration-based automatic condition monitoring of a wind turbine, comprising:

determining a set of vibration measurement values of the wind turbine;

calculating a frequency spectrum of the set of vibration measurement values;

calculating a cepstrum of the frequency spectrum;

selecting at least one first quefrency in the cepstrum; and

detecting an alarm condition based upon an amplitude of the cepstrum at the selected quefrency.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the monitored wind turbine is of variable rotor speed and the method further comprises:

determining the rotor speed of the wind turbine; and

transforming the set of vibration measurement values according to the determined speed.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the set of vibration measurement values of the wind turbine comprise measurement values of vibrations of at least one gear of the wind turbine.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the set of vibration measurement values of the wind turbine comprise measurement values of vibrations of a gearbox of the wind turbine.

5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the set of vibration measurement values comprises a time series or an envelope time series of vibration measurement values.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein calculating a frequency spectrum of the set of vibration measurement values comprises calculating an auto-spectrum.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein selecting at least one first quefrency in the cepstrum comprises selecting a quefrency that is characteristic for a monitored machinery component.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising the step of further selecting at least one second quefrency that lies in a specified quefrency interval around the selected first quefrency.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein detecting the alarm condition based upon the amplitude of the cepstrum at the selected quefrency comprises the step of converting the amplitude to an indicator value.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the indicator value is based on a mean value, a RMS value, or a peak value of the amplitude of the cepstrum at the selected quefrency or quefrencies.

11. The method according to claim 10, further comprising selecting at least one threshold value corresponding to the selected quefrency.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein detecting the alarm condition comprises comparing the amplitude of the cepstrum at the selected quefrency with the corresponding threshold value.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein detecting the alarm condition comprises selecting and evaluating an alarm rule expression from a repository of alarm rules, the alarm rule specifying an alarm condition depending on the amplitude of the cepstrum at the selected quefrency.

14. A monitoring apparatus for vibration-based automatic condition monitoring of a wind turbine, comprising:

a processing unit configured to

obtain a set of vibration measurement values of the wind turbine

calculate a frequency spectrum of the set of vibration measurement values, and

calculate a cepstrum of the frequency spectrum; and

an alarm condition evaluator configured to select at least one first quefrency in the cepstrum and to detect an alarm condition based upon an amplitude of the cepstrum at the selected quefrency.

15. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the processing unit is further configured to obtain at least one rotor speed value of the wind turbine and to transform the set of vibration measurement values according to the rotor speed value.

16. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 15, wherein the set of vibration measurement values comprise measurement values of vibrations of at least one gear of the monitored wind turbine.

17. The monitoring apparatus according to claims 16, wherein the set of vibration measurement values comprise measurement values of vibrations of a gearbox of the monitored wind turbine.

18. The monitoring apparatus according to claims 17, wherein the set of vibration measurement values comprises a time series or an envelope time series of vibration measurement values.

19. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 18, wherein the processing unit is configured to calculate the frequency spectrum of the set of vibration measurement values based on calculating an auto-spectrum.

20. The monitoring apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the alarm condition evaluator is configured to select the at least one first quefrency in the cepstrum based on selecting a quefrency that is characteristic for a monitored machinery component.