2026-04-13T01:09:40Zhttps://recercat.cat/oai/request

oai:recercat.cat:2117/1046002026-01-21T05:48:28Zcom_2072_1033col_2072_452950

urn:hdl:2117/104600 New method for lubricating wind turbine pitch gears using embedded micro-nozzles Farré Lladós, Josep Westerberg, Lars G. Casals Terré, Jasmina Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria mecànica Wind turbines Gearing--Lubrication Abrasive wear Corrosive wear Gears Grease application Lubricating greases MEMS devices Open gears Oxidative wear Power generation Aerogeneradors Engranatges Lubrificació i lubrificants This is a copy of the author 's final draft version of an article published in the journal Journal of mechanical science and technology. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12206-017-0131-3 The increase of power generated by wind turbines has increased the stresses applied in all of its components, thereby causing premature failures. Particularly, pitch and yaw gears suffer from excessive wear mainly caused by inappropriate lubrication. This paper presents a novel method to automatically lubricate the wind turbine pitch gear during operation. A micro-nozzle to inject fresh grease continuously between the teeth in contact was designed, manufactured, and installed in a test bench of a 2 MW wind turbine pitch system. The test bench was used to characterize the fatigue behavior of the gear surface using conventional wind turbine greases under real cyclic loads. Measurements of wear evolution in a pitch gear with and without micro-nozzle show a decrease of 70 % of the wear coefficient after 2×104 cycles. Peer Reviewed Postprint (author's final draft) 2017-02-19 Article http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12206-017-0131-3 Open Access Springer