Abstract
Gearbox is a critical component in the wind turbine system which can transfer wind energy into wind power to replace some fossil energy in order to reduce the environmental pollution. A 1.5-MW wind turbine gearbox failed after about 5 years of service; however, the design life of the gearbox is 20 years. In this paper, the failure mechanism of the gearbox was investigated based on standard failure analysis procedures and finite element (FE) simulation. The failure of gear could be attributed to fatigue fracture, because typical macroscopic features—beach marks and ratcheting marks—could be observed on the fracture surface. Furthermore, contact fatigue caused the formation of pits on the failed working tooth flank, even brought some microcracks. It should be emphasized that fatigue pitting mainly concentrated at the left end of the failed gear. Based on the physical, chemical analysis, and FE simulation, the failure of gear should be essentially ascribed to abnormal load rather than the material defects. Finally, based on the failure characteristics, partial load should be responsible for the failure of the gear in the wind turbine gearbox.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
F. Fazelpour, N. Soltani, S. Soltani, M.A. Rosen, Assessment of wind energy potential and economics in the north-western Iranian cities of Tabriz and Ardabil. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 45, 87–99 (2015)
G. He, D.M. Kammen, Where, when and how much solar is available? A provincial-scale solar resource assessment for China. Renew Energy 85, 74–82 (2016)
R.P. Lee, S. Gloaguen, Path-dependence, lock-in, and student perceptions of nuclear energy in France: implications from a pilot study. Energy Res. Soc. Sci. 8, 86–99 (2015)
F. Mahmuddin, M. Idrus, Hamzah. Analysis of Ocean Wind Energy Density around Sulawesi and Maluku Islands with Scatterometer Data. Conference and Exhibition Indonesia—New, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation (The 3rd Indo-EBTKE ConEx 2014). Energy Procedia; 65, pp. 107–115 (2015)
M. Shafiee, Maintenance logistics organization for offshore wind energy: current progress and future perspectives. Renew. Energy 77, 182–193 (2015)
X.C. Fan, W.Q. Wang, R.J. Shi, F.T. Li, Review of development sand insight sin to an index system of wind power utilization level. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 48, 463–471 (2015)
J.F. Li, F.B. Cai, L.M. Qiao, Q.X. Wang, H. Gao, W.Q. Tang, P. Peng, D. Geng, X.Q. Li, Q.H. Li, China Wind Power Review and Outlook. Chin. Renew. Energy Indus. Assoc. 2014, 22–24 (2014)
M.M. Zhao, J.C. Ji, Nonlinear torsional vibrations of a wind turbine gearbox. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 39, 4928–4950 (2015)
V. Onishchenko, Investigation of tooth wears from scuffing of heavy duty machine spur gears. Mech. Mach. Theory 83, 38–55 (2015)
S. Netpu, P. Srichandr, Failure of a helical gear in a power plant. Eng. Fail. Anal. 32, 81–90 (2013)
A. Al-Meshari, E. Al-Zahrani, M. Diab, Failure analysis of cooling fan gearbox. Eng. Fail. Anal. 20, 166–172 (2012)
W.N. Yu, Y.M. Shao, C.K. Mechefske, The effects of spur gear tooth spatial crack propagation on gear mesh stiffness. Eng. Fail. Anal. 54, 103–119 (2015)
A.R. Nejad, Z. Gao, T. Moan, On long-term fatigue damage and reliability analysis of gears under wind loads in offshore wind turbine drivetrains. Int. J. Fatigue 61, 116–128 (2014)
S. Li, A. Kahraman, A micro-pitting model for spur gear contacts. Int. J. Fatigue 59, 224–233 (2014)
A. Parey, N.K. Jain, S.C. Koria, Failure analysis of air-cooled condenser gearbox. Case Stud. Eng. Fail. Anal. 2, 150–156 (2014)
Gear Manual Writing Committee, Gear Handbook, 2nd edn. (Machinery Industry Press, New York, 2013)
W. Liu, The failure analysis of the repeat gear tooth breakage in a 40 MW steam turbine load gearbox and the butterfly in the carburized case. Eng. Fail. Anal. 46, 9–17 (2014)
D.Y. Zhang, S.G. Liu, B.L. Liu, J. Hong, Investigation on bending fatigue failure of a micro-gear through finite element analysis. Eng. Fail. Anal. 31, 225–235 (2013)
J. Brauer, A general finite element model of involute gears. Finite Element Anal. Des. 40, 1857–1872 (2004)
Aciers pour cementation-Conditions techniques de livraison. EN 10084 (2008)
Calculation of load capacity of spur and helical gears—Part 5: Strength and quality of materials. ISO 6006-5 (2003)
Steels—determination and verification of the depth of carburized and hardened cases. ISO 2639 (2002)
F. Elasha, C. Ruiz-Cárcel, D. Mba, G. Kiat, I. Nze, G. Yebra, Pitting detection in worm gearboxes with vibration analysis. Eng. Fail. Anal. 42, 366–376 (2014)
O. Asi, Fatigue failure of a helical gear in a gearbox. Eng. Fail. Anal. 13, 1116–1125 (2006)
A. Fuentes, R. Ruiz-Orzaez, I. Gonzalez-Perez, Computerized design, simulation of meshing, and finite element analysis of two types of geometry of curvilinear cylindrical gears. Comput. Methods Appl. Mech. Eng. 272, 321–339 (2014)
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their sincere thanks to Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science (SYNL) for the long-term support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, Q., Zhu, Y., Zhang, Z. et al. Partial Load: A Key Factor Resulting in the Failure of Gear in the Wind Turbine Gearbox. J Fail. Anal. and Preven. 16, 109–122 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11668-015-0057-y
Received:
Revised:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11668-015-0057-y