Using an FMEA method to compare prospective wind turbine design reliabilities

Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) has been shown to be an effective way of improving machinery design reliability. This paper applies the FMEA to the design for availability of a 2MW, geared, exemplar R80 wind turbine design used in the EU FP7 ReliaWind Consortium. The technique will be used to compare the prospective reliabilities of three versions of the geared R80 turbine with different drive train solutions. These solutions have been proposed to reduce overall wind turbine failure rate and raise its availability. The first solution incorporates a conventional LV Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) with partially-rated Converter; the second solution incorporates an innovative Hydraulic Converter coupled to an MV Synchronous Generator (SG); the third solution incorporates an innovative LV Brushless Doubly Fed Induction Generator also with a partially-rated Converter. The paper proposes modifications to the FMEA method to analyse availability and applies that approach to these three alternative designs to identify their relative merits.