Challenges and Solutions for Wind Turbines
Rotor blades in wind turbines are growing longer – but also slower. Multi-megawatt wind turbines will turn even more slowly, so reproducible low-frequency vibration monitoring will gain in importance not only for the main rotor but also for the slow-operating gearbox components and roller bearings. Reliably measuring low frequencies, however, can be rather tricky. This article discusses some of the issues that pose new challenges to sensor and measurement hardware manufacturers and some possible solutions.
By Dr Edwin Becker, Pruftechnik Condition Monitoring GmbH, Germany
What Are Low-Frequency Vibrations?
According to VDI 3834 and ISO 10816-21, low-frequency vibrations are defined as vibrations between 0.1 and 10Hz. These vibrations are analysed for their velocities and acceleration rates, and the least favourable values count.
