ADVANCED MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR FOR OFFSHORE WIND FARMS USING

FAULT PREDICTION TECHNIQUES

P. Caselitz, J. Giebhardt
Institut für Solare Energieversorgungstechnik (ISET), Div. Energy Conversion and Control Engineering
Königstor 59, D-34119 Kassel, E-mail: dce@iset.uni-kassel.de, Fax: ++49 (0) 561 7294 100

ABSTRACT: Fault prediction and condition monitoring techniques are used in many fields of electrical energy generation,
e.g. in rotating components of power plant generators or cooling pumps. Most of this techniques are transferable for use in
wind energy converters. For many years, ISET has been working in the field of condition monitoring and fault prediction in
wind energy converters and has worked out respective hardware and software solutions. Developments have been carried out
in close cooperation with several industrial partners. Prototype systems have been field tested. Next step has to be the
integration of fault prediction and maintenance and repair scheduling techniques into offshore wind energy converter and
wind farm technology. This paper will introduce the up to now results of ISETs work in the field of condition monitoring and
fault prediction in wind energy converters. Furthermore, approaches will be presented, how to integrate the required
hardware and software extensions into wind energy converter technology to perform a condition depending maintenance and
repair strategy in offshore wind farms.

Keywords: Offshore, Condition monitoring, Maintenance, Vibration.

1 INTRODUCTION Moreover, condition monitoring will also detect

extreme external conditions, such as icing or wave-
induced tower oscillations at offshore plants, and can
For wind energy converters in offshore wind farms trigger appropriate control actions to prevent damage of
improved maintenance and repair (M&R) strategies are plant components. This way, overall maintenance costs
required, because the farm may be unreachable for several and down times of offshore wind energy converters can be
months due to bad weather conditions. New M&R significantly reduced. With the experiences of specific
strategies should minimize the personnel effort for each component loads carried out by the CMS maintenance
wind energy converter (WEC) to allow M&R service at intervals can be extended.
appropriate costs. A condition depending strategy, where
M&R service is carried out on demand, should be
established in the long run.
Detailed measurement and monitoring of the actual 2 CONDITION MONITORING SYSTEMS
WEC operational condition and knowledge of its load
cycles are the basis for a condition depending M&R
strategy. Therefore, required information for WEC 2.1 Data aquisition hardware
operators, manufacturers and M&R service providers must The CMS monitoring and fault prediction functions
be made available. By looking at the temporal are based on robust sensor equipment for continuous
development of the WEC condition, possible faults of measurements and perform online evaluation of
mechanical parts have to be detected in an early state. characteristic fault indicators by use of modern digital
Collecting the data, which represent the WEC’s overall signal processing methods. Fig. 1 shows a typical sensor
condition in a data base will also indicate constructional configuration for the nacelle of a horizontal axis WEC.
weak parts in components of WEC, which will lead to
technical and economical optimised WEC operation.
Significant improvements in the field of condition
depending M&R strategies can be expected from efficient
fault prediction algorithms on the basis of condition
monitoring systems (CMS). Although WECs have reached
high technical standards, there is still a strong potential for
further development, especially with large, megawatt size
machines, which will be used in offshore wind farms.
Autonomous online condition monitoring systems
with integrated fault detection algorithms allow early
warnings of mechanical and electrical defects to prevent
major component failures. Side effects on other
components can be reduced significantly. Many faults can
be detected while the defective component is still
operational. Thus, necessary repair actions can be planned
in time and need not be taken immediately. This is
important especially for off-shore plants, where bad Fig. 1: Condition monitoring sensor configuration for
weather conditions (storm, high tide, ...) can prevent any horizontal axis wind energy converters
repair actions for several weeks.
 Modern type WEC technology is mainly based on
rotational components. Therefore, measurement of
vibration on component housings and structural oscillation
will yield data for the calculation of characteristic values
by advanced condition monitoring and fault prediction
algorithms. The sensor configuration shown in fig. 1
allows nacelle oscillation measurement in axial and
transverse direction, related to the rotor axis. By use of
two transverse directed sensors in front of and behind the
vertical tower axis, measurement of torsional oscillation of
the nacelle can be done.
The characteristic values for WEC monitoring are
derived from two different types of sensors. The nacelle
oscillation induced by rotational speed of the rotor at very
low frequency are measured with static accelerometers, i.
e. with a lower cutoff frequency of 0 Hz. Fig. 1 shows the
mounting positions of the sensors at labels 2, 3 and 4.
Labels 5 and 6 in fig. 1 show the position of the
gearbox and generator vibration sensors. These sensors
operate at a frequency range from 1 Hz to 20,000 Hz to
measure the vibration induced by bearings and
gearwheels. The absolute rotor position, measured by an
inductive distance sensor (label 1 in figure 1), is needed to
perform phase sensitiv narrow band analysis, a specialized
FFT-algorithm for signal processing.
The sensors can be mounted with glued sockets on
every plain surface. The area needed is about 5 cm in
square. The low frequency accelerometers should be
mounted on the supporting frame of the nacelle. Vibration
sensors are advantagiously placed near bearing sheelds.
Installation of the complete system can be done even after
WEC’s building up phase very easily. Significant cost
reduction is expected by integration of the CMS during
construction phase.
2.2 Fault prediction algorithms
Modern type WECs perform certain basic fault
supervision functions by use of measurements such as the
rotational speed of shafts, power, generator temperature
etc. Some plants also allow for remote control and remote
transmission of operational data.
The CMS and fault prediction algorithms calculate
statistic values like mean value or standard deviation and
perform a learning mode to determine warning and alarm
levels autonomously. The levels are calculated from the
mean and standard deviation values with weight factors as
parameters. After finishing the learning mode this
parameters can be modified by the operator if necessary.
Fault detection makes use of standard classification
procedures as well as advanced fuzzy techniques to
combine information from different measurements. By
combination of these methods the reliability of fault
detection and classification is significantly improved.
In addition to the basic supervision functions
described above a condition monitoring and fault
prediction system complements these facilities by
measurement and online evaluation of component
vibrations and structural oscillations. From this, detailed
diagnostics of the plant condition are derived and faults
like imbalance or fatigue of rotor blades, offsets in the
pitch or yaw system, wear or impending cracks of bearings
and tooth wheels of the gearbox can be detected at an
early stage.
Overall operational characteristics
To obtain diagnosis information about any
performance degradation of a WEC resulting, for example,
from increased rotor blade roughness, icing or faults of the
generator system, continuous supervision of the power
characteristic is performed. For this purpose wind speed
measurements from the nacelle are very well suited
because the evaluation is only based on relative changes in
the characteristic and not on comparisons with the plant’s
nominal power curve. By using the built in anemometer,
wind speed can be measured without any additional sensor
installation. For a detailed discussion of power
characteristic monitoring see [1].
Figure 2 shows a power characteristic of a 600 kW
stall WEC. The circles represent the manufakturers power
curve. The dots result from pairs of measured 5 min. mean
values of power P and wind speed vW. The outer thin lines
are absolute alarm limits which are determined by the
CMS application programmer. The inner thin lines are
learned alarm limits. The learning process is done by
classification of the measured P(vW)-values. The bandwith
of the alarm limits is calculated out of the class mean
values combined with the standard deviation of the
respective class.
Fig. 2: Measured power characteristic of a 600 kW WEC
Gearbox and bearing fault detection
Global characteristic values like bearing condition unit
(BCU) and Crest (which is the peak value divided by the
RMS value in a time signal) give information about the
overall condition of gearbox and bearings. If a rising trend
for this values is detected, additional diagnosis for
bearings can be derived from envelope curve analysis
which uses modulations of high frequency resonances to
evaluate specific fault frequencies. The peak spectral
amplitude of the fault frequency and the trend data are
continuously evaluated, e.g. by a fuzzy classifier, to yield
reliable alarm triggering.
Figure 3 shows the principle procedure for monitoring
of a scalar characteristic value, like the above mentioned
BCU or Crest values. After performing a learning phase,
the alarm limit is calculated out of mean value and
standard deviation of the measured characteristic value. In
the monitoring phase the mean value is checked for the
alarm limit. If more than 5 subsequent values exceed the
limit, an alarm is triggered.

Fig 3: Monitoring of a scalar characteristiv value
CMS signal processing functionality will be further
enhanced by advanced algorithms, such as spectral
analysis of tooth mesh frequencies with its side bands.
This is especially well suited for gearbox diagnosis. The
algorithm calculates the overall spectral energy (RMS
value) in the side bands devided by the tooth mesh
amplitude. In case of degrading quality of gearwheel teeth,
the enrgy of the side bands and thus the ratio’s value will
rise.
Rotor faults
Methods to detect rotor asymmetries (e.g. mass
imbalance, aero-dynamic asymmetry, yaw misalignment)
are based on spectral analysis of low frequency nacelle
oscillation. Analysis of these nacelle oscillations induced
by the rotor has proven to be very useful to detect and
distinguish rotor fault conditions. Characteristic values
resulting from spectral analysis algorithms appear as
complex values with real part and imaginary part. These
complex values can be interpreted as vectors. Both,
amplitude and phase of these vectors, are significant to
certain fault conditions.
Figure 4 shows the principle for monitoring of vector
characteristic values. To monitor amplitude and phase
simultanously the alarm limit is represented by a circle
arround the tip of the mean value vector X0. Exceeding of
alarm limit is checked by calculating the differential
vector to the actual measurement (X1, X2 resp.). With this
circle limit changes in phase with constant amplitude
(differential vector dX1) will be detected as well as
amplitude deviation without significant phase shift (dX2).
Fig 4: Monitoring of a vector characteristic value
Based on the above described algorithms the following
condition monitoring functions for the main WEC
components have been designed, implemented and tested
in laboratory and in a field test with several installations at
WECs of a rated power up to 600 kW (see [1]):
• continuous monitoring of the power characteristic as
an overall representative value for the WEC
condition by comparing average wind speed and
electric power output (5 minute mean values),
• vibration monitoring of the gearbox and the generator
(gear wheels, bearings ...),
• analysis of tower oscillations (axial, transversal und
torsion) with respect to rotor asymmetries as well as
rotor and tower eigenfrequencies,
• Other application specific fault detection tasks, e.g.
concerning hydraulic pressure, generator temperature
etc., may easily be added.
Advanced methods for evaluating gearbox and bearing
condition, like envelope curve spectra or side band
analysis of tooth mesh frequencies are subjects of ISET‘s
ongoing research activities.
3 RESULTS OF A FIELD TEST PHASE
In the course of several EU and German gouvernment
funded projects, ISET has performed a field test with a
commercial CMS (Bruel & Kjaer's VIBRO-IC). The field
test yield to extensive knowledge in CMS integration into
WEC and wind farm technology, improvement and newly
development of fault prediction algorithms and long term
measurements of characteristic values, representing the
actual condition of the tested WECs.
As an example, figure 5 shows a trend plot of the 1p
amplitude and phase of the axial nacelle oscillation of a
300 kW WEC. The 1p frequency is the spectral
component at rotor shaft frequency. The axial direction is
excited, when the rotor has an aerodynamic asymmetry,
e.g. if one blade angle differs from the others. Each dot in
the upper two diagrams represents a measurement
amplitude and phase data set, resulting from a spectral
analysis window of 90 sec. and the calculation of the
power density spectra, performed with an improved FFT
algorithm.
Fig 5: Trend plot of the 1p axial nacelle oscillation spectra
The lower left diagram gives the correlation between
the 1p axial oscillation amplitude and the electrical power
output of the WEC. It can be pointed out, that at power
output above 250 kW, the variance of the amplitudes
increases significantly. To obtain appropriate
determination of alarm limits from these data, it is
recommended to exclude data points from the learning
process, if power output exceeds 250 kW.
In the lower right diagram of figure 5, the complex
representation of the 1p amplitude and phase data sets of
the nacelle oscillation is given. Each circle represents the
tip of a complex spectral component in the complex plain.
As it can be seen, the data sets are concentrated in a small
area at an amplitude of aprox. 40 mg and a phase angle of
80° degrees. Therefore, an alarm limit can be easily
applied as a circle arround the measurment dots.
The measured data point to an aerodynamical
assymetry of the rotor, because there is a significant
amplitude and a very constant phase. The long term trend
plot (upper diagrams) show no increasing trend of these
values. Therefore, the rotor asymmetry is likely to be
caused by the manufacturing and installation tolerances of
the rotor blades and the pitch drive mechanics.
4 OFFSHORE CMS APPLICATIONS
Since offshore WECs are typically built in wind farm
configurations an important feature of the CMS is the
capabilty of building up networks (see Figure 6). As a
hardware standard, the Ethernet LAN technology is well
established in most of the wind farms. Based on fiber optic
channels highly reliable connections can be made over
long distances with full transmission rate performance up
to 100 Mbit/s. Use of TCP/IP protocol will allow to
communicate with well proven Internet software tools.
Fig 6: LAN configuration for CMS in offshore wind farms
This allows data exchange between the CMS and
simultaneous access to all systems provided by a central
data base operation and visualization PC unit, called farm
server. To supply CMS with networking and Internet
capabilities, embedded PC (EPC) technology can be used.
Figure 7 proposes a solution, where a CMS with serial
RS232 connection is combined with an EPC. This EPC
cyclicly reads out the relevant fault prediction data from
the CMS. The EPC has an integrated web server and is
application programmable (C++ on WindowsCE). With
this configuration, all relevant actions, like software
updates or parameter refinement, can be done via Internet
tools, e.g. web browsers. Data download can be done via
FTP. Security of data transfer can be achieved by using
the Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology.
Fig 7: CMS connected to an Embedded PC
Fault classification in offshore wind farms will be
optimized comparing WECs operating under identical
conditions. Redundant measurements provided by the
farm server (e.g. wind speed) will be used to improve the
overall wind farm performance, e.g. by minimizing
operational losses due to anemometer failures on a single
WEC.
The new generation of offshore multi megawatt size
WECs with hub heights up to 100 m and more will
increase cost for maintanace and replacing of defect
components. This makes a predictive maintenance and
repair strategy indispensable for cost effective operation of
those WECs. On the other hand the investment costs of
offshore megawatt WECs per unit will be much higher
than onshore due to higher costs for grounding and
cabling. This will cause appropriate rises in capital and
insurance costs. Insurance companies may insist on
installation of CMS to reduce risk of damage events and
consequential costs to safeguard the investments.
5 FUTURE RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
Because of its perspective to increase operational
reliabilty and availability condition monitoring and fault
prediction is a very promising option for future WEC
technology and will probably be a prerequisite for
economic viability of wind farm projects at offshore sites.
Results of a field test of a CMS for wind turbines
show that those system can be easily integrated in WECs
of different type and size. Next steps of research will be
the integration of fault prediction data into data bases for
performing a condition depending M&R strategy for
WECs in offshore wind farms. These items are currently
worked out in an EU project "Advanced management and
surveillance of wind farms – CleverFarm" and will be
continued in the EU project " Advanced maintenance and
repair for offshore wind farms using fault prediction and
condition monitoring techniques - OffShoreM&R".
REFERENCES
[1] P. Caselitz, J. Giebhardt, M. Mevenkamp, M.
Reichardt, "Application of condition monitoring systems
in wind energy converters ", Proceedings of the EWEC
'97, Dublin, pp. 579 - 582.
[2] P. Caselitz, J. Giebhardt "Advanced condition
monitoring for wind energy converters ", Proceedings of
the EWEC '99, Nizza.
[3] G. Giebel et al., "The CleverFarm project Working
towards an intelligent wind farm", 2002 Global
windpower conference and exhibition, Paris (FR), 2-5 Apr
2002