White Etching Cracks in wind turbine bearings

White Etching Cracks in wind turbine bearings

Juarez Carrasco, Antonio (TU Delft Aerospace Engineering)

Petrov, R.H. (mentor)
Danielsen, Hilmar K. (mentor)

Delft University of Technology
Technical University of Denmark

European Wind Energy Masters (EWEM) | Rotor Design Track

2018-05-29

Wind turbine (WT) gear boxes are prone to failure well below the expected 20 years’ lifetime of a WT. It has been identified that most of the failures observed are due to white etch crack flaking. Although this type of failure has been intensely studied, the underlying mechanisms have not been identified; however, recent advances have shown that non-metallic inclusions might act as crack initiators. In this work, different bearings presenting this type of damage will be examined via microtomography scans and high precision serial sectioning to reveal surfaces displaying crack-inclusion interactions. Furthermore, by means of energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry it will be possible to investigate the chemical composition of the non-metallic inclusions. The findings will be compared to current initiation and propagation theories proposed in literature; Thus, this study will add experimental observations to current investigations using a novel technique.

Tomography
Wind turbine bearings
White etch cracks
Non-metallic inclusions

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:97265795-04c1-4c85-8c54-d396caf3375a

Student theses

master thesis

© 2018 Antonio Juarez Carrasco