Building a robust path for wind turbine engineering

Optimizing noise, vibrations, fatigue performance and energy management

The growing demand for wind energy has greatly advanced the technologies applied in wind turbine development over the past decade. But the engineering of new wind turbines remains a complex and challenging task, due to the large physical size, the complex interaction between mechanical and electro-mechanical subsystems, and the strongly varying wind speed.

To certify a new wind turbine, manufacturers must ensure full system reliability under real-life operating condition. Durability must be assessed to provide a 20-year lifetime with low operation and maintenance costs. Noise emissions must remain within prescribed tolerances. On top of that, the control system must guarantee clean voltage at constant frequency. Overcoming these challenges involves extensive engineering efforts from initial concept design to final wind turbine validation and certification.

LMS has worked extensively with wind turbine manufacturers and suppliers and gained a wide experience in engineering top-class products. LMS offers an extensive portfolio of simulation tools, testing systems and services for:

Vibro-acoustic measurements and analysis for troubleshooting and design optimization
Radiated noise simulation and optimization
Fatigue life prediction
Operational driveline measurements
Gear contact modeling
Gearbox noise path identification
Multi-domain system simulation to analyze mechanical, electrical and thermal effects

Loads prediction and analysis

Accurate simulation and analysis of the dynamic behavior of wind turbine subsystems requires a robust process to determine the load cases acting on the wind turbine components. LMS has developed an integrated approach to determine load cases based on simulation or operational testing.

Fatigue engineering

LMS Virtual.Lab provides an efficient and reliable solution to predict and resolve potential fatigue issues in the early development phase. It uses component load histories based on measurements or derived from multi-body simulation. The time history approach uses all the significantly damaging events and automatically accounts for the correct phase relations of load components and correct mean stresses.

Noise optimization

Mastering the radiated noise that covers almost the entire audible spectrum is a highly complex task. To tackle this challenge, LMS offers an innovative approach that uniquely combines test-based techniques with simulation methods in a so-called hybrid engineering approach.

Mastering mechanical, thermal and electro-magnetic phenomena

The LMS Imagine.Lab AMESim solution allows the coupling between mechanical components (mill blades and gearbox), the electrical generator and the power grid. With the resulting combined model, engineers can design the control rules, investigate and compare connection configurations with power grids, optimize energy management and detect potential failures online.

	Home \| Login \| Language \| Quick Product Locator \| Contact us \| Offices