《OPTIMISED GEARBOX DESIGN FOR MODERN WIND TURBINES》

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国外的技术
Early development of wind turbines in the UK saw the application of gearboxes with novel and advanced design features based on the ideas of Hicks. Unfortunately at the time the full benefit of these design features, the flexible pin and the high speed differential, was not fully appreciated by the wind turbine industry and superficially simpler and lower manufacturing cost industrial based gearbox solutions were generally adopted. Reliability issues with current gearboxes and the need for larger wind turbines operating in sever offshore conditions suggests that the design principles of Hicks are even more appropriate to today’s wind turbine industry. This paper outlines the fundamental advantages of the design features that were successfully demonstrated on LS1 3MW wind turbine in Orkney in 1982, are installed in wind turbines operating in extremely high wind conditions in NZ, and currently under going test on a 3.4 MW wind turbine operating in adjures conditions in northern Europe. The true technical and commercial advantage of the flexible pin and differential features can now be demonstrated relative to the performance of current gearboxes and these advantages become even more significant to the total life cycle economics of wind energy generation, when larger power machines are considered for which mass, size, reliability and energy capture are paramount factors. The paper leads on to illustrate the optimized wind turbine gearbox transmission, the MINI-MASS, that provides high reliability, low weight, and can be used in combination with a low cost generator system.