Hamburg, Germany – June 22, 2016 – REWITEC® and Sentient Science are bringing wind turbine operators and developers together on June 23 in Hamburg, Germany to present the latest nanotechnology solution that extends the life of wind turbine gearboxes.
REWITEC’s nanoparticle additive, DuraGear® W100, can be applied to an operational wind turbine gearbox’s lubrication system to reduce friction and wear, ultimately extending the life of the gearbox.
REWITEC sought out Sentient Science, a trusted third party, to apply its material science-based DigitalClone® computational testing software to simulate how the use of the DuraGear® W100 would impact the life of the key bearings and gears within a wind turbine gearbox.
“We applied our DigitalClone® prognostic modeling to GE 1.5 MW gearboxes and simulated the impact that the surface treatment would have on the intermediate pinion bearing, planetary bearing and the intermediate pinion gear,” said Raja Pulikollu, Chief Material Scientist and Vice President of Implementations at Sentient Science. “We found that the treatment was expected to improve the overall fatigue life for the bearing by a factor of up to 3.3 and 2.6 for gears.”
The event tomorrow will include three presentations led by Prof. Dr. Schirmeisen on the “Tribological processes of nanoparticle additives in metal contacts: What does a nanoparticle in a wind turbine gearbox do. REWITEC®’s CEO Mr. Stefan Bill on how “Surface Treatment with Nanoparticles reduce Friction and Wear in wind turbine gearboxes.” And Sentient’s Business Development Manager Wesley Thomas will present on the DigitalClone® findings “Material Science-based Predictive Model – DigitalClone® for analyzing the life impact of REWITEC DuraGear® W100 treatment of GE 1.5 MW gearbox.”
“We always knew our product could extend life of gears and bearings, but we could never say exactly for how much longer. We chose Sentient Science because their DigitalClone® models were the only way for us to prove the life extension in exact years and financial numbers for our innovative surface treatment technology. We contracted with Sentient Science to run extensive tests in order to get the perfect results and proof for REWITEC®,” said Bill.
Sentient can help operators understand where the expected failures are located and in which turbines they are to warrant the use of the DuraGear® W100 additive by creating digital models of their fleet’s gearboxes and key components. Sentient simulates each turbine under representative operating conditions and provides the failure rates of each of the gearboxes and key components. The DigitalClone® software performs trade off studies to alert the operator of the cost savings and life extension that would be achieved by using the DuraGear® additives.
For more information or to register for the event, visit rewitec.com. To read more about the work that Sentient Science completed for REWITEC®, click here.