Fault diagnosis and prognosis capabilities for wind turbine hydraulic pitch systems

Alessio Dallabona*, Mogens Blanke, Henrik C. Pedersen, Dimitrios Papageorgiou

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

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Abstract

Wind energy is the leading non-hydro renewable technology. Increasing reliability is a key factor in reducing the downtime of high-power wind turbines installed in remote off-shore places, where maintenance is costly and less reactive. Defects in the pitch system are responsible for up to 20% of a wind turbine downtime. Thus, monitoring such defects is essential for avoiding it. This paper presents a generic assessment of the diagnosis capabilities in hydraulic pitch systems, which are used in high-power wind turbines. A mathematical model of the non-linear system dynamics is presented along with a description of the most frequent faults that occur. Structural analysis is used to assess which defects can be detected in the pitch system. The structural properties are furthermore explored to investigate the possibility of reducing the amount of sensors without compromising the fault diagnosis capabilities. Robustness to model uncertainty is finally addressed and generic principles for estimating the detectable magnitude of wear and tear are presented.

Original languageEnglish
Article number111941
JournalMechanical Systems and Signal Processing
Volume224
Number of pages15
ISSN0888-3270
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2025

Keywords

  • Condition monitoring
  • Fault diagnosis
  • Fluid power systems
  • Hydraulic actuator
  • Pitch system
  • Wind turbine

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