Flexible Pinion Support Wind Turbine Gearbox Design
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Wind turbines face challenges with gearbox efficiency, size, weight, and torque distribution, leading to power loss and potential mechanical failures due to high torque and stiffness requirements, which affect reliability and economy.
Innovation Solution
A gearbox design with an input shaft portion connected to a wind turbine rotor shaft, featuring an input gear wheel and pinions supported by a flexible pinion support structure that allows for bending and load distribution, reducing the transmission of damaging loads and eliminating the need for an external housing to carry reactive forces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If a high ratio gearbox is used to increase speed and minimize generator size, then the generator size is reduced, but power loss during conversion increases (almost 1% for each stage)
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the pinion support structure flexible rather than rigid, allowing it to adapt to bending loads dynamically. This flexibility reduces stress concentrations and prevents catastrophic failures while maintaining the high ratio gearbox configuration, thereby preserving both the reduced generator size and improving power transmission efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the structural parameter of the pinion support from rigid to flexible, altering its mechanical properties to better handle high torque conditions. This parameter change allows the system to maintain high speed multiplication while reducing power losses through improved load distribution and reduced mechanical stress.
2Force
If a planetary stage is used as input gear to distribute torque, then torque distribution is improved, but manufacturing precision requirements increase (high precision in position and production of gearwheels and planetary carrier)
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the rigid pinion support structure into multiple independently supported pinions, each capable of slight movement. This segmentation allows the system to maintain good torque distribution while reducing the precision requirements for each individual gear component, as the flexible support compensates for manufacturing tolerances.
3Stability of the object's composition
If the planet carrier is fixed rotationally to the housing using bearings, then the connection is stable, but the gearbox becomes over-constrained and vulnerable to unexpected loads from main axle flexing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by replacing the rigid rotational fixation of the pinion support with a flexible mounting system. This allows the support structure to move and adapt to bending loads from main axle flexing, preventing over-constraint while maintaining stable power transmission. The flexible mounting preserves connection stability while dramatically improving reliability under variable loading conditions.
4Speed
If multiple gearwheels are used in a planet stage to convert low speed to high speed, then speed multiplication is achieved, but oscillation between gearwheels occurs under certain conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by introducing flexibility in the pinion support structure, which allows the gearwheels to move slightly in response to oscillatory forces. This dynamic compliance dampens oscillations between gearwheels during speed multiplication, reducing harmful vibrations while maintaining the required speed increase from the rotor to the generator.
Data Source
AI summary
The present invention relates to a gearbox for a wind turbine comprising: an input shaft portion adapted to be operatively connected to a wind turbine rotor shaft; and input hear wheel having teeth arranged around an outer or inner circumference of the wheel, and being attached to the input shaft portion such as to rotate with the input portion; one or more pinions including a pinion wheel arranged on a pinion shaft, the pinion wheel having teeth arranged to engage with the teeth of the input gear wheel, and the pinion shaft being rotatably mounted in a pinion support structure, wherein the input shaft portion is rotatably mounted with respect to the pinion support structure.