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orgInternationalJournalofMaterialandMechanicalEngineering(IJMME)Volume3Issue1,February2014
DOI:10.14355/ijmme.2014.0301.02
FiniteelementAnalysisofHorizontalaxis
WindturbineGearboxFailureviaTooth
bendingFatigue
M.Grujicic*1,R.Galgalikar,S.Ramaswami,J.S.Snipes,V.Chenna,R.Yavari
DepartmentofMechanicalEngineering,ClemsonUniversity
Clemson,SC29634,USA
*1
gmica@clemson.edu
Abstract
Wind energy is one of the most promising and the fastest
growing alternativeenergy production technologies which
have been developed in response to stricter environmental
regulations, the depletion of fossilfuel reserves, and the
worldsevergrowingenergyneeds.Thisformofalternative
energy is projected to provide 20% of the US energy needs
by 2030. For economic reasons, wind turbines (articulated
structureswhichconvertwindenergyintoelectricalenergy)
are expected to operate, with only regular maintenance, for
at least twenty years. However, some key windturbine
components (especially the gearbox) tend to wear down,
malfunction and fail in a significantly shorter time, often
three to five years after installation, causing an increase in
the windenergy cost and in the cost of ownership of the
wind turbine. Clearly, to overcome this problem, a
significantincreaseinlongtermgearboxreliabilityneedsto
be achieved. While purely empirical efforts aimed at
identifying shortcomings in the current design of the
gearboxes are of critical importance, the use of advanced
computational methods engineering analyses can also be
highlybeneficial.Thepresentworkdemonstratestheuseof
the finite element analysis in modeling and elucidating the
root cause of one of the gear failure modes (i.e. tooth
bending fatigue) under a variety of normal operating and
extremewindloadingconditions.
Keywords
Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine; Gearbox Reliability; Tooth
bendingFatigueFailure
Introduction
The main objective of the present work is to address
theproblemoflongtermreliabilityandthemodesof
failureofgearboxesusedinwind(energyharvesting)
turbines. Consequently, the concepts most relevant to
the present work are: (a) windenergy harvesting; (b)
windturbine gearbox reliability; and (c) root causes
and main modes of gear damage and failure. In the
remainder of this section, a brief description is
providedforeachoftheseconcepts.
WindEnergyHarvesting
The depletion of fossilfuel reserves, stricter environ
mental regulations and the worlds evergrowing
energy needs have led to deployment/ utilization of
various alternative/renewable energy sources, among
which windenergyis one of the most promising and
the fastest growing installed alternativeenergy
production technologies. In fact, it is anticipated that
by2030,atleast20%oftheU.S.energyneedswillbe
metbyvariousonshoreandoffshorewindfarms.
A wind turbine is essentially a converter of wind
energyintoelectricalenergy.Thisenergyconversionis
basedontheprincipleofhavingthewinddrivearotor,
thereby transferring wind power to the electrical
generator. To attain greater structural stability of the
rotor and a high value of aerodynamic efficiency, the
rotor is usually constructed as a set of three
aerodynamically shaped blades. The blades are
(typically) attached to a horizontal hub (which is
connectedtotherotoroftheelectricalgenerator,viaa
gearbox/drivetrain system, housed within the
nacelle).Therotor/hub/nacelleassemblyisplacedona
tower and the resulting wind energy converter is
referred to as the Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine
(HAWT).
To reduce the energy production cost (typically
expressed in $/kWhr), commercial wind turbines
havegrownconsiderablyinsizeoverthelast30years.
Thelargewindturbineeconomicsisbasedonthefact
that as the hubheight/windturbine rotor radius
increases, the average wind speed/wind energy
captured increases due to the so called wind shear
effect. Consequently, for the same energy production
level,lessernumberofwindturbineunitsarerequired,
which in turn leads to a reduction in the cost of
InternationalJournalofMaterialandMechanicalEngineering(IJMME)Volume3Issue1,February2014www.ijmme.org
operationofthefarm.Asthesizeofthewindturbine
rotor increases, the structural performance, durability
and dynamicstability requirements tend to become
moreandmorechallengingtomeet.
Turbinebladesandthegearboxareperhapsthemost
criticalcomponents/subsystemsinthepresentdesigns
of wind turbines. The present work deals only with
the issues related to the performance, reliability and
modesoffailureofgearboxcomponents.Inourrecent
work [Grujicic et al. (2010ab)], twolevel multi
disciplinary designoptimization methods and tools
were developed for determination of the optimal
shape and size of glassfiber reinforced epoxymatrix
compositeHAWTblades.
WindTurbineGearboxReliability
Windturbinegearboxfailureremainsoneofthemajor
problems to the windenergy industry [Musial et al.
(2007)].Therootcausesofgearboxfailureintheearlier
designsareassociatedwiththeproblemsrelatedto:(a)
fundamental design errors; (b) manufacturing
deficiencies;and(c)underestimationoftheoperating
loads. While these problems have been mainly
eliminated over the last 20 years, windturbine
gearboxesstillgenerallyfailtoachievetheirdesignlife
goal of twenty years. The combination of these high
failure rates and the high cost of gearboxes has
contributedto:(a)increasedcostofwindenergy;and
(b) higher sales price and cost of ownership of wind
turbines. Clearly, to make wind energy a more viable
renewableenergy alternative, the longterm gearbox
reliabilitymustbesignificantlyincreased.
FIG.1SCHEMATICOFAPROTOTYPICALWINDTURBINE
GEARBOX.THEMAJORCOMPONENTSANDSUBSYSTEMS
AREIDENTIFIED.
MainModesofGearDamageandFailure
Postmortem examination of the field windturbine
gearboxes revealed two main modes of gear failure
[Fernandes(1996);FernandesandMcDuling(1997)]:
(a)toothbendinghighcyclefatiguefailureThedefining
features of this geartooth failure mode can be
summarized as: (i) Fatigue cracks are typically found
tobeinitiatedattherootradiiontheengaged(loaded
in tension) side of the gear teeth; (ii) Cracks tend to
originatepreferentiallyatthelocationsassociatedwith
the largest principal stresses. Under normal loading
conditions, the highest stresses are typically found at
the tooth base, while under abnormal loading
conditions(e.g. in the case of gear misalignment), the
location of the highest stresses is related to the
characterandextentofloadingabnormality;(iii)Crack
growth is generally characterized by an Lshaped
trajectory,i.e.thecrack,nucleatedattheengagedside
of the tooth initially propagates inwards and below
thetooth,andthenmakesaturnoutwardtowardsthe
opposite side of the same tooth (leading to the tooth
breaking off); and (iv) Due to the subsequent
overloading effects, failure of one tooth is often
accompanied by failure of adjacent teeth, in rapid
succession;and
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InternationalJournalofMaterialandMechanicalEngineering(IJMME)Volume3Issue1,February2014
shaftandmountingreactionsoccursinanonlinearor
unpredictedmanner.
Considering the aforementioned potential benefits of
the computeraided engineering analysis, the main
objective of the present work is to carry out a
computeraided engineering analysis of the tooth
bending highcycle fatiguefailure of windturbine
helicalgearsfoundintheintermediatespeedstageof
thegearbox.Failureofthesegearsisoftenfoundtobe
thecauseofthewindturbinegearboxfailure.
Finite-Element Stress Analysis
Asmentionedearlier,helicalgeartoothbendinghigh
cycle fatiguefailure is one of the main modes of
failureofwindturbinegearboxes.Sincefatiguecracks
are generally initiated at surface locations associated
with the largest contact (as well as subsurface)
stresses, one must determine accurately spatial
distributionandtemporalevolutionofthecontact(as
well as throughthevolume) stresses, before
attemptingtoassessfatiguestrengthandservicelifeof
windturbine gears. Accurate determination of these
stresses is most conveniently carried out through a
finiteelementbased analysis. In the present section,
details regarding the helical matinggear interactions
during the transfer of windturbine torque loads and
the finiteelement modeling and analysis procedure
employedarepresented.
MainObjectives
Torespondtotheaforementionedproblemsrelatedto
the relatively frequent and costly failure of wind
turbine gearboxes, windturbine manufacturers tend
to reengineer critical components and include them
into new subsystems (gearbox designs). To demon
stratetheutilityofthenewdesigns,thereengineered
gearboxes are installed and field testing is started.
While this approach may help address the gearbox
reliabilityconcerns,itisassociatedwithlongfieldtest
times and costly postmortem failure analyses
necessarytoachievethedesiredlevelofconfidencein
thenewdesign.Inaddition,whenthefieldtestresults
become available, it is likely that new windturbine,
and hence new gearbox designs, will dominate the
market,makingthefieldtestresultslessvaluable.
ProblemFormulation
The basic problem analyzed here involves the
structuralresponseoftwomatingwindturbinehelical
gears located within the intermediate stage of the
gearbox,duringthetransferofthetorqueloadsunder
different expected andabnormal windloading condi
tions. The results to be obtained will subsequently be
used to assess toothbending highcyclefatigue
failurestrength and servicelife of the subject helical
gearsunderimposedwindloadingconditions.
Toovercometheforegoingshortcomingsofthepurely
empirical approach aimed at addressing the wind
turbine gearbox reliability, the use of advanced
computeraided engineering methods and tools is
advocated in the present work. While such a
computational approach is not a substitute for the
aforementionedreengineerandfieldtestapproach,it
can provide complementary insight into the problem
of windturbine gearbox failure and help gain insight
into the nature of the main cause of this failure. In
addition, computational engineering analyses enable
investigation of the gear failure in a relatively short
time, under: (a) a variety of windloading conditions
comprisingboththeexpecteddesignloadspectrumas
well as the unexpected extreme loading conditions;
and(b)conditionsinwhichthetransferofloads(both
primary torque loads and nontorque loads) from the
ComputationalAnalysis
The finiteelement analysis (FEA) used here is an
adaptation of our recent work [Grujicic et al. (2012a,
2013ac)]dealingwiththefrictionstirweldingprocess
model. In the remainder of this section, a brief
overview is provided of the key aspects of the
employedFEA.
1)GeometricalModel
The geometrical model/computational domain of
theproblemanalyzedinthisportionoftheworkis
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gravityinducedstresses.Then,atthebeginningof
the analysis, the rotational speed of the shaft
associated with the larger (driving) helical gear is
ramped up to its final value by ensuring that: (a)
the two gears are engaged; (b) the shaft of the
smaller (driven) helical gear is allowed to rotate
about its axis; and (c) a prescribed torque load is
transmitted through engagement, and subsequent
meshing of the gears. It should be noted that the
shafts and their respective gears are connected so
that the rotation of a shaft implies rotation of the
associatedgearandviceversa.
4)InitialConditions
As mentioned above, the twogear/shaft assembly
is initially assumed to be stationary and only the
stresses associated with gravityloading are
assumedtobepresentwithineachcomponent.
5)BoundaryConditions
The following boundary conditions were utilized:
(a)thecenterpointsoftheshaftendfaces(treated
as rigid surfaces) are prevented from undergoing
translation;(b)rotationalspeedisprescribedtoone
of the endfaces of the driving shaft (i.e. the shaft
associated with the larger helical gear); and (c) a
constant opposing torque is applied to one of the
endfaces of the driven shaft (i.e. the shaft
associatedwiththesmallerhelicalgear).
(a)
6)ContactInteractions
The geargear normal interactions are analyzed
using a penaltycontact algorithm. Within this
algorithm, (normal) penetration of the contacting
surfacesisresistedbyasetoflinearspringswhich
producesacontactpressurethatisproportionalto
the depth of penetration. Typically, maximum
default values, which still ensure computational
stability, are assigned to the (penalty) spring
constants.Forceequilibriuminadirectioncollinear
with the contactinterface normal then causes the
penetration to acquire an equilibrium (contact
pressuredependent)value.Itshouldbenotedthat
no contact pressures are developed unless (and
until) the nodes on the slave surface
contact/penetrate the master surface. On the
other hand, the magnitude of the contact pressure
that can be developed is unlimited. As far as the
tangential geargear interactions (responsible for
transmissionoftheshearstressesacrossthecontact
interface)areconcerned,theyaremodeledusinga
modified Coulomb friction law. Within this law,
(b)
FIG.2(a)GEOMETRICALMODEL;AND(b)CLOSEUPOFTHE
MESHEDMODELCONSISTINGOFTWOHELICALGEARSAND
TWOSHAFTS,USEDINTHEPRESENTWORK.
3)ComputationalAlgorithm
All calculations are based on a transient,
displacementbased,purelyLagrangian,conditionally
stable, explicit finiteelement algorithm. Before the
analysisisinitiated,thetwogearshaftassemblyis
assumed to be stationary and subject only to the
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InternationalJournalofMaterialandMechanicalEngineering(IJMME)Volume3Issue1,February2014
7)MaterialModel
Thehelicalgearandshaftmaterialsareassumedto
be of an isotropic (linearly) elastic, and (strain
hardenable) plastic character. Due to the isotropic
nature of the material(s) used, the elastic response
isfullydefinedintermsoftwoelasticengineering
moduli (e.g. the Youngs modulus, E, and the
Poissons ratio, ). The plastic response of the
material(s) is defined by specifying the following
three functional relations: (a) a yieldcriterion; (b) a
flowrule;and(c)aconstitutivelaw.Thesefunctional
relations and their parameterization for the gear
andshaftreferencematerial,AF1410,asecondary
hardening martensitic tool steel, can be found in
Grujicicetal.(2012c,2013bc).
(typicallysettoavalueinthe0.10.2mmrange).
Duetoitsstraincontrolledcharacter,thefatiguecrack
initiationprocessismodeledherebycombining:
(a) the conventional CoffinManson equation, ' p 2
' f (2 N i )c , where ' p 2 is the equivalent plastic
8)ComputationalToo
10
correspondingnumberofstressreversals;with
(b) the additive decomposition of the total equivalent
strain amplitude ' 2 into its elastic, 'e 2 , and
plasticcomponents;
(c) fatigue microyielding constitutive law, ' p 2
InternationalJournalofMaterialandMechanicalEngineering(IJMME)Volume3Issue1,February2014www.ijmme.org
Youngsmodulusand
(e) stressbased fatiguelife relation, ' 2 'FL
'f
E
2
'f
' 2 'FL
2 ' f
1 n'
(1)
(4)
1 v
where v is the Poissons ratio; and (e) repeating the
procedure until the computed mixedmode stress
intensity factor reaches its critical (unstable crack
growth)value.
2 Ni b ' f 2 Ni c
E
Once the region within a gear associated with the
largest value of the maximum principal stress is
identified and the corresponding equivalent stress
amplitudecomputed(usingthefiniteelementresults),
Eq. (1) can be solved iteratively to get the number of
cycles to fatiguecrack initiation Ni for a given
FatigueCrackGrowth
TemporalEvolution/SpatialDistributionofGear
ToothStresses
da
m
C K (a )
(2)
dN
where K th , C and m are material parameters. The
Inthissection,afewprototypicalfiniteelementresults
pertaining to the distribution of the maximum
principal stress over one tooth of the driven helical
geararepresentedanddiscussedinthecontextofthe
expected fatiguelife (in particular, the portion of the
fatigueliferelatedtothecracknucleationstage).
dN
1 a
da
C a K (a ) m
1)AlignedGearCase
(3)
Typicaltemporalevolutionandspatialdistribution
ofthemaximumprincipalstressoverthesurfaceof
atoothofthedrivengear(forthecaseofperfectly
aligned shafts) are shown in Figures 3(a)(d). It is
seen that as expected, the maximum principal
stressdisplayscyclicbehavior.Thatis,asthegears
rotate, the (unengaged) tooth in question becomes
th
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InternationalJournalofMaterialandMechanicalEngineering(IJMME)Volume3Issue1,February2014
DISTRIBUTIONOFTHEMAXIMUMPRINCIPALSTRESSOVER
THESURFACEOFATOOTHOFTHEDRIVENGEAR(FORTHE
CASEOFPERFECTLYALIGNEDSHAFTS).
Theeffectofthetorquetransferredbythegearpair
analyzed on the largest value of the maximum
principalstress,andonthecorrespondingvalueof
thevonMisesequivalentstress,inthesubjectgear
tooth (for the case of perfectly aligned shafts) is
showninFigure4.Itisseenthatasthetransferred
torque increases, both the highest value of the
maximum principal stress and the associated von
Misesstressonthesurfaceofthesubjectgeartooth
alsoincrease(approximatelylinearly).Thisfinding
thenimplies,andtheresultsofthefatigueservice
lifeanalysis(presentedbelow)willconfirm,thatas
the transferred torque increases, the number of
loadingcyclesrequiredforfatiguecracknucleation
decreases.
FIG.4THEEFFECTOFTHETORQUETRANSFERREDBYTHE
GEARPAIRANALYZEDONTHELARGESTVALUEOFTHE
MAXIMUMPRINCIPALSTRESSINTHESUBJECTGEARTOOTH).
2)EffectofGearMisalignment
The effect of shaft misalignment (as quantified by
the corresponding misalignment angle, ), at a
constant transferredtorque of 165 kN.m, on the
spatialdistributionandthemagnitudeofthegear
tooth maximum principal stress, at the instant
whenthesubjectgeartoothexperiencesthelargest
valueofthemaximumprincipalstress,isdepicted
in Figures 5(a)(d). Examination of the results
showninFigures5(a)(d)revealsthatasexpected,
as the extent of gear misalignment increases, the
magnitudeofthelargestprincipalstressincreases,
and its location drifts (relative to that in the
perfectlyaligned case). Since the location
associated with the largest value of the maximum
principal stress is considered to be the place of
FIG.3TYPICALTEMPORALEVOLUTIONANDSPATIAL
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EXPERIENCESTHELARGESTVALUEOFTHEMAXIMUM
PRINCIPALSTRESS:(a)=0;(b)=1;(c)=2;AND(d)=3.
FIG.6THEEFFECTOFTHEGEARMISALIGNMENTANGLE,AT
ACONSTANTLEVELOFTHETRANSFERREDTORQUE,ON
THELARGESTVALUESOFTHEMAXIMUMPRINCIPALSTRESS.
FatigueLifePrediction
Inthissection,afewprototypicalresultsarepresented
which exemplify the effect of transferredtorque and
gear misalignment on the fatiguelife of the driven
helicalgear.
1)TheEffectofTransferredTorque
It should be recalled that according to the results
displayed in Figure 4, the fatiguecontrolled
servicelifeofthedrivenhelicalgearisexpectedto
decreasewithanincreaseofthetransferredtorque
through the gearassembly. As evidenced by the
results displayed in Figure 6, this prediction is
validated through the use of the fatiguecrack
initiation and growth postprocessing method
ologies (described in Section III). The results
displayed in this figure show the effect of the
transferredtorque on the number of cycles to
FIG.5THEEFFECTOFSHAFTMISALIGNMENT(AS
QUANTIFIEDBYTHECORRESPONDINGMISALIGNMENT
ANGLE,),ATACONSTANTLEVELOFTHETRANSFERRED
TORQUE,ONTHESPATIALDISTRIBUTIONANDTHE
MAGNITUDEOFTHEGEARTOOTHMAXIMUMPRINCIPAL
STRESS,ATTHEINSTANTWHENTHESUBJECTGEARTOOTH
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InternationalJournalofMaterialandMechanicalEngineering(IJMME)Volume3Issue1,February2014
failure(or,alternatively,onthenumberofyearsof
service) of the driven helical gear, for the case of
perfectlyalignedgears.
2)TheEffectofGearMisalignment
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TOTALFATIGUECONTROLLEDSERVICELIFEOFTHE
DRIVENHELICALGEAR,UNDERACONSTANT
TRANSFERREDTORQUECONDITION.
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