Wind turbine structure

Cabin : The cabin contains key equipment for wind turbines, including gearboxes and generators. Maintenance personnel can enter the cabin through wind turbine towers. The left end of the nacelle is the rotor of the wind generator, ie the rotor blades and the shaft.

Rotor blades : capture the wind and transmit the wind to the rotor shaft. On a modern 600 kilowatt wind turbine, each rotor blade measures approximately 20 meters in length and is designed much like an airplane wing.

Axis : The rotor shaft is attached to the low speed shaft of the wind turbine.

Low-speed shaft : The low-speed shaft of the wind generator connects the rotor shaft with the gearbox. On modern 600 kilowatt wind turbines, the rotor speed is quite slow, about 19 to 30 revolutions per minute. There is a conduit for the hydraulic system in the shaft to stimulate the operation of the aerodynamic brake.

Gearbox : The left side of the gearbox is the low speed shaft, which can increase the speed of the high speed shaft to 50 times that of the low speed shaft.

High-speed shaft and its mechanical brake : The high-speed shaft runs at 1500 rpm and drives the generator. It is equipped with emergency mechanical brakes for the failure of aerodynamic gates or when wind turbines are being serviced.

Generator : Often referred to as an induction motor or an asynchronous generator. In modern wind turbines, the maximum power output is usually 500 to 1500 kilowatts.

Yaw device : Rotate the nacelle with a motor so that the rotor is facing the wind. The yaw device is operated by an electronic controller, and the electronic controller can sense the wind direction through the wind vane. The figure shows the wind turbine yawing. In general, the wind generator will deflect only a few degrees at a time when the wind changes its direction.

Electronic controller : Contains a computer that constantly monitors the state of the wind turbine and controls the yaw device. To prevent any malfunction (ie overheating of the gearbox or generator), the controller can automatically stop the rotation of the wind turbine and call the wind turbine operator via the telephone modem.

Hydraulic system : Used to reset the aerodynamic brake of the wind generator.

Cooling element : Contains a fan for cooling the generator. In addition, it contains an oil cooling element for cooling the oil in the gearbox. Some wind generators have water-cooled generators.

Tower : The wind turbine tower contains the nacelle and rotor. Towers that are usually tall have advantages because the higher the distance from the ground, the greater the wind speed. The tower height of a modern 600 kW wind turbine is 40 to 60 meters. It can be a tubular tower or a grid-like tower. Tubular towers are safer for maintenance personnel because they can reach the top of the tower through internal ladders. The advantage of a grid tower is that it is cheaper.

Anemometer and wind vane : used to measure wind speed and wind direction.