• Journal of Drive and Control
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.16-21
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• 2024

The yaw gearbox is a key device in a wind power generator that improves power generation efficiency by rotating hundreds of tons (400 to 600 tons) of nacelle so that the blade reaches 90 degrees in the wind direction. Recently, installation sites have been advancing from land to sea as they have become super-large at (8-12) MW to increase the economic feasibility of wind power generators and utilize excellent wind resources, and the target life of large wind power generators is 25 to 30 years. The yaw gearbox of 6 to 12 sets is installed in a very complex place inside the nacelle on the tower with parallels, and it is important to secure the reliability of the yaw gearbox because if a failure occurs after installation, it costs tens to hundreds of times the price of a new product to restore. In this study, equivalent loads were calculated by analyzing failure mode and field data, accelerated life test conditions were established, and a test device was constructed to perform the accelerated life tests and performance tests to ensure the reliability of the gearbox.

• Journal of Applied Reliability
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.213-219
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• 2014

Wind turbine, which is attracting part of the renewable energy and is researching continuously, is going to be large size for high efficiency. There is a yaw system rotating the nacelle, weighted about 600 tons, to be perpendicular with the wind direction blowing in the large wind turbine. The wind turbine is focusing on the reliability improvement because working environment effect is bigger than any other points and specially, the reliability improvement of the yaw drive is required by the customer because it is the key component of the wind turbine. Because of this, the establishment of criteria for yaw drive is required because yaw drive system is the part of the wind turbine closely related with ensuring the reliability. So, this study did the failure analysis of the yaw drive system, which is consisted with 10 sets of yaw drives through researching and analyzing the site conditions. Also this study designed the life test method based on the failure analysis and working condition of the yaw drive. To design the accelerated life test of the yaw drive, this study reviewed the torque, lubrication condition, and frequency of use and etc. Finally, this selected the torque as the acceleration factor which is affected mainly to the system and also, the test equipment was developed based on the requirement of the life and performance test.