Prevention of helical gear tooth damage in wind turbine generator: A case study

Abstract

The transmission error between the driving and driven gears originating because of manufacturing error or misalignment in the gearbox assembly causes noise and vibrations during the functioning of the gearbox. This research article discusses a novel method to prevent tooth damage in the helical gear due to transmission error by providing tip relief on the gear tooth and introducing a combination of epi-cycloid and involute profiles called composite profile for the gear tooth. Analysis is carried out using finite-element analysis package for the existing involute as well as the modified composite helical gear pair to evaluate the performance. The study reveals that the modified design (tip relief with composite profile) is superior to the existing involute gear for windmill applications because the wind turbine generators are subjected to fluctuating wind force, sudden grid drops, failure of pitching, braking, etc.