You think you have blade problems
By Perry1, Section Wind Posted on Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 04:42:02 AM MST
new to the board

Hello all, This is my first post on the forum. I have been reading for a while and I think it is great. I am amazed at the inginuity and technical knowledge that I see demonstrated here. My story might be different than most. I work as a development engineer for one of those big guy companies working in wind. The first turbine I built puts out 1.5 megawatts and I am now working my way up to a 100 watt Ametek 30V model :)  Actually I bought the book and I am working on a 10 footer now. No real need for the power or living off grid. I just think they are great machines and can drink a 6 pack and watch them run for hours. Thought some of you might be interested in seeing what I have to deal with when a blade needs some work during my 'day job' Perry

You think you have blade problems | 15 comments (15 topical)

Re: You think you have blade problems (3.00 / 0) (#1) by boB on Sun Jul 12, 2009 at 11:15:16 PM MST

I think it's great to get another perspective on all of this ! Ironically, on a recent engineering road trip from one small wind installation to another, I got "stuck" behind a truck carrying a large blade ! Welcome ! boB

Re: You think you have blade problems (3.00 / 0) (#2) by boB on Sun Jul 12, 2009 at 11:16:17 PM MST

Here's what I got stuck behind... boB

Re: You think you have blade problems (3.00 / 0) (#3) by halfcrazy on Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 04:12:47 AM MST

Can we use that turbine to charge our battery's? I think boB can build me a controller. Seriously though that staging going around the blade is way cool. [ Parent ]

Re: You think you have blade problems (3.00 / 0) (#4) by Madscientist267 on Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 07:16:18 AM MST

Hahaha Do you think they'd notice if one just 'came up missing'? LMAO [ Parent ]

Re: You think you have blade problems (3.00 / 0) (#6) by zap on Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 07:25:06 AM MST

One??? Just think what the counter-weights would need to be. :) zap [ Parent ]

Re: You think you have blade problems (3.00 / 0) (#5) by zap on Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 07:23:47 AM MST

Welcome to the board Perry. Nice pictures... what's the max wind speed they allow for working off that scaffolding? zap

Re: You think you have blade problems (3.00 / 0) (#7) by SDSUMetalHead on Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 08:03:35 AM MST

Perry, What company do you work with? Also what location do you work in? I am a Mechanical Engineering student that will be graduating in December and since this is an area I am very interested in I would like to find out about all of the companies that make up this field of interest. Thank you, Garet Miller SDSU MetalHead

Re: You think you have blade problems (3.00 / 0) (#8) by SparWeb on Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 08:39:43 AM MST

Wow fun job! Is that a visual inspection, or are you brining some fancy ultrasonic or x-ray inspection equipment up there with you?  Or are you just scraping the bugs off?  :-) I've wondered for a while if there are maintenance requirements that must be met on those machines to keep them "certified for use" - like it is in the aircraft world. Steven Fahey

Re: You think you have blade problems (3.00 / 0) (#9) by Madscientist267 on Mon Jul 13, 2009 at 10:39:01 AM MST

Its cool to see these things up close... I stay curious about just how big they can actually get and still stand upright. :) Also - I think somebody's been 'spying' on the board here or something... In the article in the below link about a 7+ MW version, it mentions that there is no tranny like the smaller versions have. Interesting... http://www.metaefficient.com/news/new-record-worlds-largest-wind-turbine-7-megawatts.html One thing I don't really get about the design... somewhere in there it mentions 12 RPM peak - so why the red 'prop' stripes? Something tells me nobody is going to incorrectly estimate a unit of this size in the "is it rotating" department. Hmmm... Either way, looks like a fun job to have. I'm sure it comes with a unique set of challenges to say the very least... Steve

Re: You think you have blade problems (3.00 / 0) (#10) by Perry1 on Tue Jul 14, 2009 at 01:46:44 AM MST

Thank you all for the comments. I'll try to answer as many questions as I can. This particular turbine is a 1.5 mW unit installed in Texas. I took the pic's just today. We are preparring to replace a blade. Lightning can be a bitch. This is one of our shorter ones with a hub height of 65 meters. Using the platorm for some stuff I can't really discuss. You know how it goes. Wind was at a steady 8 m/s but we saw some gusts up to 10. Plenty of maintenence to perform on these things. Not so much for certifications but to keep them running. Our key metric is availability. Keep em running to make the money. The crews at the farm do all that. I just visit the sites when we need to prototype something new. Wind farms in the US are among the best in the world. Usually at least 100 turbines and as many as 250. Here's a few more pic's from the platform. Perry   [ Parent ]

Re: You think you have blade problems (3.00 / 0) (#13) by Madscientist267 on Wed Jul 15, 2009 at 10:10:35 AM MST

Pretty sweet... hadn't thought about the lightning aspect of it, but I guess a wind farm with mills that size on it are more or less a storm orgy waiting to happen for anything passing by with a significant charge on it, eh? What's the biggest problem with lightning? I'm guessing blade damage... maybe fused bearings? I figure the electrical parts are more or less safe; I'm sure there's plenty of continuity to the ground in one of those just through the main bearing, right? Steve [ Parent ]

Re: You think you have blade problems (3.00 / 0) (#15) by Perry1 on Thu Jul 30, 2009 at 08:41:22 AM MST

Ha! storm orgy. That's about it. Realize that these things are put up in the windiest stormiest places we can find. Our feet routinely sees 10-20 lightning strikes a day. Mostly the grounding system handles them and the turbine continues to operate right through it. Mostly. I still see lots of damage ranging anywhere from dime size entrance and exit holes to 10000 pound chunks of the blades being blown completely off. That's a major issue. Talk about being off balance. Perry [ Parent ]

Re: You think you have blade problems (3.00 / 0) (#14) by SparWeb on Wed Jul 15, 2009 at 12:26:20 PM MST

Great pictures Perry, and if you run into snags with your own projects, you gotta know by now everybody here is keen to help. Steven Fahey [ Parent ]

Re: You think you have blade problems (3.00 / 0) (#11) by hvirtane on Tue Jul 14, 2009 at 10:06:22 AM MST

Nice pictures. Thank you for these. I have sometimes seen those big blades on the road in India, very seldom in Finland. They used to produce them a lot not so far from the place, where I'm living. But the production has maybe shifted already somewhere else. Who made the blades you are working with? What about the gearboxes of those machines? The second biggest factory in the world making gearboxes for wind turbines is 30 km from my living place (Moventas, in Jyvaskyla, Finland). At least it used to be the second biggest, but nowadays, when the owners have changed I don't know if they have shifted the production somewhere in a cheaper location like in U.S. or in China...

Re: You think you have blade problems (3.00 / 0) (#12) by ruddycrazy on Wed Jul 15, 2009 at 03:45:46 AM MST

Excellent pic's Perry,                       I did notice in one of my gearbox repair books are some schematics of several different wind turbine gearboxs. I suppose if I left all the details of the box off the pictures so all the pic's would be a split view of a gearbox I shouldn't be doing any harm. When I'm back on deck next week I'll bring my book home and scan those pic's. Cheers Bryan

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