Determining damage and remaining useful life of rotating machinery including drive trains, gearboxes, and generators

• US 9,360,393 B2
• Filed: 05/21/2012
• Issued: 06/07/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Insight Analytics Solutions Holdings Limited (BP PLC)
• Original Assignee: Romax Technology Limited
• Inventors: Poon, Andy, Ma, Xiaoqin, Coultate, John Karl, Golysheva, Evgenia
• Primary Examiner(s): Zarroli, Michael
• Application Number:
  US14/119,158
• Publication Number:
  US 20140088888A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,478 Days
• Field of Search: 702/34
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: F03B 15/00 Controlling controlling in general G05 ; regulation of plants characterised by the use of siphons F03B13/086
• 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 7/02 the wind motors having rotation axis substantially parallel to the air flow entering the rotor
• CPC Class Codes: F03D 80/50 Maintenance or repair
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2260/821 Parameter estimation or prediction
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2260/84 Modelling or simulation
• CPC Class Codes: F05B 2270/332 Maximum loads or fatigue criteria
• CPC Class Codes: G01M 13/00 Testing of machine parts
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/00 Testing or monitoring of control systems or parts thereof monitoring of programme-control systems G05B19/048, G05B19/406
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0283 Predictive maintenance, e.g. involving the monitoring of a system and, based on the monitoring results, taking decisions on the maintenance schedule of the monitored system; Estimating remaining useful life [RUL] preventive maintenance, i.e. planning maintenance according to the available resources without monitoring the system G06Q10/06
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/20 Hydro energy
• CPC Class Codes: Y02E 10/72 Wind turbines with rotation axis in wind direction

Abstract

A method for predicting remaining useful life of a wind or water turbine or component determines in step (116) an accumulated damage for the turbine or component and compares this in step (118) to preset damage limit obtained in step (114). This provides a simple approach to estimating remaining useful life, giving the turbine operator an indication of the condition of turbines or farms under management.

Claims

1. A method for assessing for refurbishing a failed wind or water turbine component comprising the steps of:

predicting the remaining useful life of the component according to the steps of;

obtaining a damage limit value for the rotating machine or component thereof;

determining accumulated damage for the rotating machine or component thereof according to the steps of;

providing data relating to one or more operating conditions;

providing one or more damage coefficients relating to the one or more operating conditions; and

calculating the damage as a function of the one or more operating conditions and the one or more damage coefficients; and

determining the remaining useful life from the damage limit and the accumulated damage;

setting a refurbishment limit;

investigating for actual damage to the component when the residual useful life is greater than the refurbishment limit;

the component being repairable, refurbishing the component.

2. The method according to claim 1, in which the step of investigating for actual damage is selected from the group consisting of using an endoscope, performing vibration analysis and performing lubrication analysis.

3. A computer readable product comprising code means designed for implementing the steps of the method according to claim 1.

4. A computer system comprising means designed for implementing the steps of the method according to claim 1.

5. The method according to claim 1, in which the step of providing one or more damage coefficients comprises the steps of:

determining damage under rated operating conditions and under the one or more field operating conditions of the same duration; and

calculating the one or more damage coefficients as a function of the damage under rated conditions and the damage under the one or more field operating conditions.

6. The method according to claim 5 in which the step of determining damage includes providing one or more models selected from the group consisting of:

a bearing skidding model;

a dynamic model;

a life model;

a nominal model of the gearbox, drive-train and/or generator;

a model unique to the specific gearbox, drive-train and/or generator including information on one or more manufacturing variations of one or more components of the gearbox, drive-train and/or generator;

a fully coupled finite element model comprising nodes with six degrees of freedom unique to the gearbox, drive-train and/or generator; and

one or more meta-models, wherein the one or more meta-models are specific for each of the one or more components.

7. The method according to claim 6 in which the one or more damage coefficients are a function of a ratio of damage under rated operating conditions and damage under the one or more field operating conditions of the same duration.

8. The method according to claim 1, in which the step of providing data comprises one or more of the following:

providing data relating to one or more steady state operating conditions;

providing data relating to one or more transient state operating conditions;

providing historical data;

collecting data from one or more sensors monitoring the one or more operating conditions; and

providing data from a condition monitoring system.

9. The method according to claim 1, in which the step of providing one or more damage coefficients comprises one or more of the following:

providing damage coefficients relating to one or more steady state operating conditions; and

providing damage coefficients relating to one or more transient state operating conditions.