Validation Test - Vistisen Vestas

7/28/2019 Validation Test - Vistisen Vestas

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Using CompactRIO and LabVIEW to Verify the Design and Test the Durability of aWind Turbine Drive Train

Author:

Rasmus Vistisen, Measurement Systems Engineer, Test & Verification, Vestas Wind SystemsA/S, Denmark

Category:

Validation Test

Products Used:

LabVIEWLabVIEW Real-TimeLabVIEW FPGA

CompactRIO

C Series I/O

The Challenge: Ensuring the long-term quality and reliability of various types of windturbine drive train components.

The Solution: Adopting the NI LabVIEW software and CompactRIO hardware platform tocreate a generic, flexible, high-channel-count measurement system for design verification

and reliability tests to be completed in a test center and in the field.

Vestas Uses Test to Beat Competitors

Vestas is a global leader and manufacturer of onshore and offshore wind turbines. The

companys objective is to provide customers with the lowest cost of energy. To achieve thisobjective, Vestas engineers perform more tests on the wind turbine than any other

company in the industry.

At the Vestas Technology R&D center, we reduce the Cost of Energy (CoE) and ensure

business case certainty through a comprehensive test program that verifies our design and

proves reliability.

A crucial system in a wind turbine is the drive train. The drive train consists of various

components including bearings, a main shaft, a gearbox, and a generator. We use modeling

and simulation to design the drive trains, and then a thorough design verification process toverify the models offline with real-world data from our test rigs and in the field. In addition,


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we perform reliability tests on the various drive train components, both in our controlledtest center environment and in the field, to ensure a predicted life span. Performing thesedurability tests also helps us create a maintenance schedule for these components so that

we can repair or replace parts before they break.

Test System RequirementsFor gearbox tests we needed a new, very reliable measurement system that provides us

with the flexibility to connect to any sensor or communication protocol that the gearbox

designers required. We also needed to dynamically add test rig and turbine control data. Weneeded a system that could sample hundreds of I/O channels at a high sample rate in

physically separated areas. For the best possible model verification, we also needed the

measurement system to tightly synchronize all I/O channels sample by sample in order todetect how events happening in the rotating part of the gearbox influence the gearbox as awhole. Additionally, we needed to log all the measurement data to a host computer for

online signal processing and offline analysis.

An off-the-shelf system that met our requirements was not available on the market.

Therefore, we needed a software-defined platform that we could use to both customize theinitial test system and to update and customize it for new tests. We chose LabVIEW and

CompactRIO as the measurement platform for drive train testing because it offers theflexibility, ruggedness, tight synchronization, and mixed-sensor connectivity that weneeded. CompactRIO also has the environmental specifications and small size necessary to

deploy the measurement system in the field where temperatures range from -20 to 50 Cand humidity and salt can be a challenge. Additionally, LabVIEW has proven to be a very

good development environment for large, complex applications such as our measurementsystem.

Because of the expected development time and the complexity of the application, we usedCIM Industrial Systems A/S, a National Instruments Alliance Partner in Denmark, to help

with the design of the architecture and provide the solution. With more Certified LabVIEW

Architects than any other NI Alliance Partner in Europe, they were an ideal partner for thisproject. CIM and Vestas used a structured development process to provide very detaileddesign and software documentation, which will make it easy to implement, maintain, and

modify the measurement system for many years to come.


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Figure 1: The big challenge is the sample-by-sample data synchronization between differentsensor types in the rotating hub and the nacelle.

Measurement System DesignCIM helped with the design of a measurement system consisting of several CompactRIOsystems capable of making hundreds of temperature, vibration, movement, and strain

measurements in several places in the gearbox. All CompactRIO devices behind the slip ringin the gearbox are connected to a host PC through a 100 Mbit/s Ethernet connection, andthe CompactRIO node before the slip ring is connected through Wi-Fi. We use a GPS clock

signal (PPS) to synchronize all I/O channels, each making exactly the required

measurements per second with the required accuracy, s, and the IEEE 1588 precision timeprotocol to synchronize the data packets.

The LabVIEW application is flexible and reliable and is extremely stable thanks to theadvanced software architecture, to which NI engineering also contributed. The easy-to-useconfiguration menus in LabVIEW make it simple to add CompactRIO modules for new

measurements or to add new sensors to existing modules.


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Figure 2: A simplified design overview of the complex software design on the hostcomputer.

Benefits

Because of the scalability and tight I/O channel synchronization in our measurement

system, we can verify the models and simulation results of the drive train using verydetailed data. In addition, because of the reliability and sturdiness of the test system, wecan run long durability tests on the gearbox and be confident that all data is securely logged

and for a very long time. We also implemented connectivity to the turbine controller forfurther optimization.

This test system ensures the structural reliability of the gearbox, and thus contributes to

longer uptimes and lower turbine costs. In fact, the latest Vestas wind turbine, the V112-3.0MW, has the lowest cost per kilowatt hour on the market.

In the future, wed like to capture higher frequency vibrations by increasing the sampling

rate of the measurement system and adding turbine event-triggered data collection. Wewould also like to expand the measurement system further by including other parts of the

drive train, and even the entire wind turbine. There are plans to implement this system at

all of our test centers around the world.


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Figure 3: A simple GUI for a very complex measurement system makes it easy for operatorsto use.


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Figure 4: The system is based on a plug-and-play architecture, where connected

CompactRIO systems are auto detected and configured.

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Validation Test - Vistisen Vestas