Evaluation of Wear Models for the Wear Calculation of Journal Bearings for Planetary Gears in Wind Turbines

To increase the power density of the electromechanical drive train of wind turbines, journal bearings can be used as planetary gear bearings instead of rolling bearings. This technological change presents new challenges. For example, wind turbine drive systems are subject to dynamic and low-speed operating conditions, which can lead to accelerated abrasive wear of the journal bearings. In addition, oil supply failure or peak loads due to wind gusts and grid and power converter faults could potentially result in catastrophic failure due to adhesive wear in a very short time. Such operating characteristics are, therefore, critical regarding the journal bearing wear lifetime and must be considered in the design. The successful implementation of journal bearings in wind turbines depends on a reliable estimation of adhesive and abrasive wear. In this paper, five different models for the wear calculation of journal bearings are evaluated regarding their suitability for the wear calculation of planetary gear bearings in wind turbines. For this purpose, the following evaluation criteria were defined: parameter uncertainty, parametrization effort, in particular number of parameters, parameterization method, load case dependency of parameters and calculation effort. In order to be able to evaluate the wear models, the wear models are numerically implemented, and the wear of a test journal bearing is exemplarily calculated under load conditions, which are comparable to load conditions in a wind turbine. Relevant influences from the wind turbine system, such as lubricant, material and manufacturing-dependent surface influences, such as roughness and hardness, are considered. The wear models are evaluated with respect to their fulfillment of the defined criteria. The resulting evaluation allows the selection of a wear model that can be used to calculate the wear of planetary gear journal bearings in wind turbines, considering the available input variables.