Wind turbine drive train system failures have been the major source of down time and costly repairs. One of the main failure modes associated with gearbox failures is the formation of white etching cracks (WECs) in bearings. In this paper, low-speed intermediate shaft (LSIS) and high-speed intermediate shaft (HSIS) bearings are collected from failed gearboxes to examine microstructural alterations and evaluate damage.

Author: Harpal Singh, PhD, Raja V. Pulikollu, PhD, Wayne Hawkins, Greg Smith

Publish Date: June 6, 2017