Wind turbine drive-train condition monitoring

As well as being green, wind energy is one of the cheapest ways of generating electricity and it is currently the most common generating technology for new installations in Canada. Wind farm owners, however, are finding that key turbine components, such as the generators and gearboxes, can fail long before the 20 year lifetime that is normally assumed. This project will develop methods to use the outcomes of monitoring those components to develop techniques to improve the detection of component faults and allow better and cheaper scheduling of maintenance. The project combines the skills developed at the University of Calgary in analyzing vibration signals with the operational experience and data provided by the 10 MW wind farm at the Wind Energy Institute of Canada.

Faculty Supervisor:

Qiao Sun

Student:

Ehsan Mollasalehi

Partner:

Wind Energy Institute of Canada

Discipline:

Engineering - mechanical

Sector:

Alternative energy

University:

Program: