Our purpose is to reduce the unexpected failures of wind turbine drivetrains to zero.
PURPOSE
PUSHING THE LIMITS OF WIND ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Our purpose is to reduce the unexpected failures of wind turbine drivetrains to zero.
INESCO INGENIEROS is an engineering company based in Santander (Spain). Inesco offers high-quality engineering services in the field of material and mechanical engineering, structural integrity, NDT solutions and condition monitoring.
TWI is one of Europe’s largest independent research and technology organisations. Based in Cambridged, TWI provides industry with technical support in materials, composites, welding, structural integrity, failure investigation, inspection and NDT.
Innora Ltd is a privately owned profit R&D SME. They deliver high-added value advanced technology intellectual property. Services include system design, complete integration and customization support, as well as collaboration project development.
The overall mission of Brunel University and in particular of the Brunel Innovation Centre (UBRUN) is to establish a world class research centre focusing on acoustic waves and allied technologies covering sensors, electronics and software systems
Relex Italia Srl is a PTC partner specialized in Reliability Engineering and provides PTC WQS software, RAMS and risk management consulting services for different sectors including aerospace, telecommunications, automotive, transportation and Oil&Gas.
The ACMwind solution is a bespoke, non‐intrusive, acoustic‐analysis CM system, which utilises an acoustic sensor array to detect faults in drivetrain components at an early stage. The developed non‐contact sensor array consists of a group of acoustic pressure sensors arranged in a manner which allow for easy installation and set‐up. This acoustic array is capable of detecting the sound-borne emissions from the different components of the drivetrain including main bearing, gearbox and generator. Vibrations from all the rotating components within the nacelle are monitored through the airborne noise.
Additionally, the signal processing algorithm can differentiate the origin of the sound, and thus prescribe the defect to the faulty piece of machinery (gearbox, bearings and so on). The designed software will then automatically recognise the structural health signature of each monitored component from analysis of the frequency and time dependence of the acoustic array responses. The software also allows for both noise and vibration reduction within the turbine components. The complete system therefore provides continuous, non‐intrusive, health monitoring of the wind turbine drive‐train, combined with active noise cancellation algorithms. The distinct, quantitative history of the structural integrity of the machine components will allow operators to estimate the time left until failure.
