Analysis of Pitch Gear Deterioration using Indicators

This work concerns a case study in the context of risk-based operation and maintenance of offshore wind turbines. For wind turbines with electrical pitch systems, deterioration can generally be observed at the pitch gear teeth; especially at the point where the blades are located during normal production. This deterioration is expected to cause larger loads, because increased play causes dynamic loads. At some point, the increased loads can be expected to cause failure somewhere in the pitch system. If the loads increase with the size of the damage, the loads can be used as indicators of the size of the damage, and can be used for Bayesian updating of a damage model used for risk-based decision making. For this decision problem, the risk of failure should be compared to the cost of preventive maintenance. The hypothesis that the maximum pitch motor torque is an indicator of the damage size is supported by results from a measurement campaign where measurements are available both before and after maintenance was performed. The loads dramatically decreased after the maintenance. However, after a few more months of measurements, and by including data from the SCADA system, it became obvious that seasonal changes in the temperature are the primary cause of the decrease. A model is established to remove the effect of the explained variation, and it is investigated if deterioration can be detected as changes in the peak torque. A small increase could be detected after the maintenance, but before the maintenance no significant change was found.