Wind Turbine With Improved Cooling

Abstract

A wind turbine with improved cooling, which provides liquid cooling for a wind turbine with a completely closed or at least partially closed cooling circuit, with which the heat to be dissipated from the cooling circuit is dissipated by a nacelle of the wind turbine. The wind turbine with improved cooling dissipates energy losses from heat and applied for the conversion of kinetic energy of wind into mechanical and electrical energy of the wind turbine.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]The present invention relates generally to wind turbines and more specifically to a wind turbine with improved cooling, which provides improved cooling for components of the wind turbine.[0003]2. Discussion of the Prior Art[0004]Most wind turbines use heat transfer devices, such as fans to dissipate heat into the environment. In this way, cold air is suctioned in from the outside by the fans to cool wind turbine components such as the generator. The heated air is then blown back outside. Some wind turbines transfer component heat within a nacelle to a heat exchanger mounted external on the nacelle for atmosphere environment air to pass through and transfer the heat.[0005]All of these known solutions have in common a large amount of air that is always needed from the outside. This is particularly disadvantageous if the outside air is humid or, particularly in coastal regions, if it has a high salt content, and the coolin...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0010]The advantages of the invention include the fact that no high salt content or humid air comes into contact with the wind turbine components, such as generators, brakes, bearings and electronics. The risk of corrosion is thus drastically reduced within the nacelle and the tower. The nacelle is a housing that contains components, such as the generator, brakes, bearing assembly, gear boxes, electronics and controls. The nacelle also includes a reservoir for retaining cooling fluid. Preferably, a plurality of internal cooling fins extend from an inner surface of the nacelle into reservoir chambers formed in the nacelle for extracting heat from the cooling liquid. Heat is transferred from the plurality of internal cooling fins to an outer surface area of the nacelle to be cooled by atmosphere wind.

[0013]For improving the cooling effect of the nacelle, the nacelle can be completely or partially made out of metal. It is preferable to use aluminum as the metal in order to also take advantage of the cooling effect of an outer surface area of the nacelle, which is constantly enveloped by wind, and thus to increase the wind turbine cooling. The outer surface area of the nacelle is cooled by atmospheric wind.

Problems solved by technology

This is particularly disadvantageous if the outside air is humid or, particularly in coastal regions, if it has a high salt content, and the cooling elements are then exposed to this humid and high salt content air.

This problem is especially extreme with wind energy facilities that stand directly on a coast or, in offshore technology, directly in salt water.

Another problem is the environmental contamination of air heat exchanges being clogged and blocked.

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