4/7/2014 Gearboxes for Wind Turbines

http://www.motiva.fi/myllarin_tuulivoima/windpower%20web/en/tour/wtrb/powtrain.htm 1/2
Gearboxes for Wind Turbines
Why Use a Gearbox?
The power from t he rot at ion of t he wind
t urbine rot or is t ransferred t o t he generat or
t hrough t he power t rain, i.e. t hrough t he
main shaft , t he gearbox and t he high speed
shaft , as we saw on t he page wit h t he
Component s of a Wind Turbine.
But why use a gearbox? Couldn't we just
drive t he generat or direct ly wit h t he power
from t he main shaft ?
If we used an ordinary generat or, direct ly connect ed t o a 50 Hz AC (
alt ernat ing current ) t hree phase grid wit h t wo, four, or six poles, we would have
t o have an ext remely high speed t urbine wit h bet ween 1000 and 3000
revolut ions per minut e (rpm), as we can see in t he page on Changing Generat or
Rot at ional Speed. Wit h a 43 met re rot or diamet er t hat would imply a t ip speed
of t he rot or of far more t han t wice t he speed of sound, so we might as well
forget it .
Anot her possibilit y is t o build a slow-moving AC generat or wit h many poles.
But if you want ed t o connect t he generat or direct ly t o t he grid, you would end
up wit h a 200 pole generat or (i.e. 300 magnet s) t o arrive at a reasonable
rot at ional speed of 30 rpm.
Anot her problem is, t hat t he mass of t he rot or of t he generat or has t o be
roughly proport ional t o t he amount of t orque (moment , or t urning force) it has
t o handle. So a direct ly driven generat or will be very heavy (and expensive) in
any case.
Less Torque, More Speed
The pract ical solut ion, which is used in t he opposit e direct ion in lot s of
indust rial machinery, and in connect ion wit h car engines is t o use a gearbox.
Wit h a gearbox you convert bet ween slowly rot at ing, high t orque power which
you get from t he wind t urbine rot or - and high speed, low t orque power, which
you use for t he generat or.
The gearbox in a wind t urbine does not "change gears". It normally has a
single gear rat io bet ween t he rot at ion of t he rot or and t he generat or. For a 600
or 750 kW machine, t he gear rat io is t ypically approximat ely 1 t o 50.
The pict ure below shows a 1.5 MW gearbox for a wind t urbine. This
part icular gearbox is somewhat unusual, since it has flanges for t wo generat ors
on t he high speed side (t o t he right ). The orange gadget s just below t he
generat or at t achment s t o t he right are t he hydraulically operat ed emergency
disc brakes. In t he background you see t he lower part of a nacelle for a 1.5 MW
t urbine.
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Wind
Turbine siting
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How does it work?
Generators
Generators
Synchronous machines
No. of poles
Asynchronous machines
Changing no. of poles
Variable slip
Indirect grid connection
Gearboxes
Controllers
Power quality
Turbine design
Manuf acturing
R & D
Electrical grid
Environment
Economics
History of wind energy
Wind energy manual
4/7/2014 Gearboxes for Wind Turbines
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Copyright 1997-2003 Danish Wind Industry Association
Updated 19 September 2003
http://www.windpower.org/en/tour/wtrb/powtrain.htm