The combined effect of Scale and Non-stationary Conditions on Predictive Health Monitoring Procedures: A Case of Wind Turbine

The condition monitoring and predictive health practices have become significantly important part of offshore wind farms in order to cut down operation and maintenance costs. Machine dynamics, machine rotational speed and sampling procedures are three significant features with the stochastic nature and together increase the complexity of predictive health monitoring (PHM) procedures. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate; first, the influence of scale and environmental loading conditions on the reliability of the rotating components of wind energy system; second, their influences on PHM procedures. The case study method has been utilized; the target of analysis is the wind turbine gearbox (WTG) as a component that is facing operational challenges due to its scale and environmental disturbances. This paper result in first explores scaled-up design features and their associated failure modes. Second, it shows the effects of these features as interference, defect noises and others issues on whole monitoring procedures. Wind turbine as a scaled-up system has critical points where it's technical specifications, components, interfaces, functions could require careful modifications. The effectiveness of PHM system is significantly affected by those critical points.