Structural And Thermal Analysis Of 1.5MW Gearbox In Wind Turbine

Gearbox is the most important component of mechanical transmission in wind turbine, which performance directly determines the wind turbine efficiency. And life expectancy is usually required of 20 years. Because of its poor working conditions, gearbox is damaged very easily with complicated and varied windload. Body of gearbox as an important component of itself, its main function is to support the system of transmission in normal and stable operation, and it also absorb vibration to prevent the noise. Body of gearbox is also a weak part in one of the gearbox. Therefore, the structural analysis of the box has an important significance.In this paper, three-dimensional model of 1.5 megawatts gearbox has been set up and equipped by SolidWorks. Then it is converted into the file of finite element model in ABAQUS. The static load are calculated.and then Static Analysis are made.The results show that the box's strength is Sufficient,which provide a theoretical basis for design of structural improvements.In the dynamics analysis of inherent character, the principle of modal analysis and modal extraction method are introduced, the natural frequencies and mode shapes is obtained through modal analysis. and its dynamic characteristics are extracted. The results show that local vibration of the box will happen in excitation of Gearing.Therefor, resonant frequency of the gearbox is determined. It follow up the foundation to optimize design.Finally, the power loss of gearbox are calculated.Then the relationship between some parameters of transmission and power loss are given. the heat balance equation of gearbox is made,which base on the power loss. the thermal-structural coupled finite element analysis of gearbox are made in environment temperature-40℃and 20℃.The thermal characteristics are obtained in different external and internal heat transfer coefficient of gearbox, and stress concentration locations are determined in the work process. The results show that thermal stress exceeds the allowable stress of gearbox. It follow up the foundation to optimize design too.