Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWMThe overall objective of the project was to increase the reliability and service life of tribologically highly stressed components in wind turbines in order to increase plant availability and safety. This was achieved with innovative, electrically conductive lubricants that can be used to reduce or control electrical and chemical influences which, according to the latest findings, lead to premature damage.
WindPower-Life: Increasing the service life, load capacity, and reliability of bearing and gear components in wind turbines
Completed research project
Project description
The latest findings on fatigue damage to roller bearings and gear components have shown that certain disruptive influences cause premature failure. Countermeasures have been identified for this, which were developed and tested as part of this project.
Fraunhofer IWM subproject
The Fraunhofer IWM subproject focused in particular on the development of concepts for avoiding failure-critical electrical and electrochemical disruptive influences. Within the project, a setup for testing rolling bearings with applied electrical potential was implemented. With its help, the influence of electrical potentials on the damage progression could be investigated. At the model level, it was shown how these disruptive influences can be influenced in such a way that the system's tendency to fail prematurely is significantly reduced. In the future, similar concepts can also be used in wind turbines to further increase bearing life.
Another key solution was the formulation of electrically conductive lubricants that can counteract these life-limiting influences. Ionic liquids were successfully incorporated into the lubricating oils used in the project, and conductive lubricants were produced by the partners. The results are considered consistently positive and very promising. The joint project clearly demonstrated the benefits of ionic liquids in various lubricant applications. Optimizing the synthesis route enables rapid upscaling of production if necessary. The synergistic combination of two ionic liquids opens up new fields of application and areas of use
Transfer of the project results to the following R&D services provided by Fraunhofer IWM for companies:
- Evaluation of electrical potentials on the tribological behavior of bearings
- Formulation of electrically conductive (ionic) lubricants
- Testing and assessment of the performance of these lubricants
