Author:

Abstract:

In the currently booming market of wind turbines, a clear focus is put on the design of reliable and cost-effective subsystems, such as the gearbox. A requirement for reliable gearbox design calculations is accurate load data and sufficient insight in the dynamics of the entire drive train. To ensure this requirement, considerable research effort is spent in advanced modelling and simulation techniques. This paper describes the scope of a research project at Hansen Transmissions for the development of such advanced simulations and the results of the first phase of the project. A purely torsional multibody model in DRESP is used to perform a resonance analysis and an elaborate measurement campaign is done to validate the model and gain confidence in the simulations. Therefore, the measurements are processed to identify the eigenmodes of the gearboxes in the test rig. This analysis yields seven eigenfrequencies of which three are considered as axial eigenmodes, which cannot be predicted with the torsional model. Finally, the torsional model is updated and shows a good correlation with the measurements for three out of four torsional modes which yields confidence in the use of the results. The limitation of these torsional models revealed the need to proceed with flexible 6 DOF multibody models which will be validated on a test rig at the companies facilities.