Classifications

• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F03—MACHINES OR ENGINES FOR LIQUIDS; WIND, SPRING, OR WEIGHT MOTORS; PRODUCING MECHANICAL POWER OR A REACTIVE PROPULSIVE THRUST, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • F03D—WIND MOTORS
  • F03D1/00—Wind motors with rotation axis substantially parallel to the air flow entering the rotor 
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F03—MACHINES OR ENGINES FOR LIQUIDS; WIND, SPRING, OR WEIGHT MOTORS; PRODUCING MECHANICAL POWER OR A REACTIVE PROPULSIVE THRUST, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • F03D—WIND MOTORS
  • F03D13/00—Assembly, mounting or commissioning of wind motors; Arrangements specially adapted for transporting wind motor components
  • F03D13/20—Arrangements for mounting or supporting wind motors; Masts or towers for wind motors
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F03—MACHINES OR ENGINES FOR LIQUIDS; WIND, SPRING, OR WEIGHT MOTORS; PRODUCING MECHANICAL POWER OR A REACTIVE PROPULSIVE THRUST, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • F03D—WIND MOTORS
  • F03D80/00—Details, components or accessories not provided for in groups F03D1/00 - F03D17/00
  • F03D80/80—Arrangement of components within nacelles or towers
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F05—INDEXING SCHEMES RELATING TO ENGINES OR PUMPS IN VARIOUS SUBCLASSES OF CLASSES F01-F04
  • F05B—INDEXING SCHEME RELATING TO WIND, SPRING, WEIGHT, INERTIA OR LIKE MOTORS, TO MACHINES OR ENGINES FOR LIQUIDS COVERED BY SUBCLASSES F03B, F03D AND F03G
  • F05B2240/00—Components
  • F05B2240/10—Stators
  • F05B2240/14—Casings, housings, nacelles, gondels or the like, protecting or supporting assemblies there within
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02E—REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION
  • Y02E10/00—Energy generation through renewable energy sources
  • Y02E10/70—Wind energy
  • Y02E10/72—Wind turbines with rotation axis in wind direction
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02E—REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION
  • Y02E10/00—Energy generation through renewable energy sources
  • Y02E10/70—Wind energy
  • Y02E10/728—Onshore wind turbines

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a wind turbine nacelle and a wind turbine.
• the nacelle of a modern wind turbine may comprise a number of components weighing more than one ton such as the gearbox, electric generator, power converter and transformer, respectively.
• the heavy components distributed in the long nacelle require a strong nacelle structure and accompanying yaw mechanism in order to continuously sustain and transfer the induced forces i.e. also resulting in a nacelle structure adding significantly to the total weight of the nacelle.
• An object of the present invention is therefore to provide a wind turbine nacelle with an improved structure and especially in relation to transfer of forces.
• a wind turbine nacelle comprising
• At least one strut member carrying one or more of said wind turbine components at least one strut member carrying one or more of said wind turbine components
• tie and strut members are connected at one end to each other and at the opposite ends to different positions on the base member for establishing one or more closed structures.
• said one or more closed structure is triangular, substantially triangular in shape or at least has a triangular transfer of forces with said tie member as the upper triangle side which ensures a simple and strong structure in the nacelle.
• said at least one tie member is one or more lightweight beams, cable stays or wires.
• said strut member is inclined in relation to a horizontal plane by an angle ⁇ in a range of 15 to 75° such as approx. 45°.
• the number of said at least one strut member is one centrally situated member in relation to the nacelle sides and orientated toward the rear of the nacelle.
• a lightweight nacelle structure with the possibility of positioning the wind turbine components such as an electric generator on top of or below the member as well as attached on one or both sides e.g. as two separate generators for the same gearbox.
• Other multiple configurations of a wind turbine component on opposite side of the member and behind or in front of another heavy component are also possible.
• the number of said at least one strut member is two members at the nacelle sides e.g. parallel in direction or orientated to meet at the rear of the nacelle.
• One or more of electric generators, power converters and transformers are carried by said at least one strut member in an even further aspect of the invention.
• the layout, configuration and manufacturing of the nacelle are simplified by the strut member being capable of carrying most of or all of said wind turbine component i.e. establishing one straight line of components behind the gearbox without creating torque in the nacelle structure.
• the transformer is suspended from said component carrying member in a suspension arrangement including a shaft attachment and one or more movement dampers and/or actuators.
• the suspension arrangement ensures that the transformer is allowed to swing in a controlled manner in response to any nacelle vibrations and thus avoid fatigue in the suspension of the transformer.
• the actuators may be used to control the movement of the transformer in an active damping of vibrations in the transformer or in the wind turbine as such.
• said suspension arrangement being suspended to said component carrying member in a flexible joint connection and/or includes a flexible joint connection allowing the transformer to sway and/or said flexible joint connection is a cardan, ball or similar universal coupling joint.
• fig. 1 illustrates a large modern wind turbine as known in the art
• fig. 2 illustrates a simplified cross sectional view of a well- known wind turbine nacelle, as seen from the side,
• fig. 3 illustrates schematically a wind turbine nacelle with a load carrying structure, as seen from the side,
• fig. 4 illustrates the wind turbine nacelle of fig. 3 with more details
• figs. 5a and 5b illustrate schematically another embodiment of the load carrying structure in the nacelle
• fig. 6 illustrates a sectional view of a suspension arrangement for suspending a transformer in a load carrying structure of the wind turbine nacelle
• fig. 7 illustrates a flexible embodiment of the suspension arrangement for a transformer, as seen from the rear of the nacelle.
• Fig. 1 illustrates a large modern wind turbine 1 as known in the art, comprising a tower 2 and a wind turbine nacelle 3 positioned on top of the tower 2.
• the wind turbine rotor 4 comprises three wind turbine blades 5 mounted on a common hub 6 which is connected to the nacelle 3 through the low speed shaft extending out of the nacelle 3 front.
• the wind turbine rotor 4 could comprise another number of blades 5 such as one, two, four, five or more.
• the wind turbine is erected on a concrete foundation 7 mainly positioned below a ground level 8 in order to establish a wind power plant for connection to a utility grid (not illustrated on the figure) transferring the generated power to utility customers.
• Fig. 2 illustrates a simplified cross sectional view of a nacelle 3, as seen from the side with a number of wind turbine components being present.
• the nacelle establishes a force transferring connection between the wind turbine rotor (not illustrated on the figure) and the tower 2 by especially including a bedframe as a bell-shaped member 9 carrying a gearbox 14 and a yaw mechanism 10 allowing a rotational connection to the tower.
• the illustrated nacelle also includes two sets of horizontal orientated lower and upper side beams 11, 12 wherein the lower beams 1 1 are attached to the bell-shaped member 9.
• the lower and upper beams 11, 12 are directly or indirectly connected by a number of further beams 13 in order to establish a nacelle structure.
• a floor level support structure is established between the two lower side beams 11 , 12 in order to carry further wind turbine components such as the electric generator 15, the power converter 16 (illustrated as a number of converter units) and a transformer 17.
• the transformer 17 transforms the electric power generated by the generator 15 and converted by the power converter 16 to a different high voltage level for feeding the power to the utility grid.
• Fig. 3 illustrates schematically a wind turbine nacelle with a load carrying structure 20, as seen from the side, with a connection to the wind turbine tower 2 via the yaw mechanism 10.
• the nacelle load carrying structure is illustrated as a closed structure having a triangular shape defined by a base member 21 including the bell-shaped bedframe 9, a strut member 19 and a tie member 22.
• the nacelle may comprise one or two triangular shaped structures e.g. with the strut member 19 centrally located or located at both nacelle sides, respectively.
• the nacelle may also comprise more than two triangular shaped structures e.g. one centrally located and two located at the nacelle sides.
• the strut member 19 is inclined in relation to a horizontal plane (illustrated with the dotted line) by an angle ⁇ e.g. in a range of 15 to 75° such as approx. 45° orientated toward the rear of the nacelle.
• the strut member 19 is schematically illustrated with one wind turbine component 18 such as an electric generator, power converter or transformer attached to the member 19.
• the weight of the wind turbine component is converted to a force compressing the strut member 19 (illustrated with the arrow F strut ) and tensioning the tie member 22 (illustrated with the arrow F t j e ) in relation to the two different connection positions on the base member 21 and the bedframe 9.
• the forces are transferred with the rigid connection established by the bedframe, yaw mechanism and tower 2 to the wind turbine foundation.
• Fig. 4 illustrates the wind turbine nacelle of fig. 3 including a number of wind turbine components attached to the strut member 19.
• the generator 15 is illustrated as being the first wind turbine component attached to the strut member 19 with use of connection means 24 such as bolts, rods or similar attachment means.
• Fig. 5a and 5b illustrate schematically another embodiment of the load carrying structure 20 in the nacelle 3.
• Fig. 5 a illustrates the load carrying structure of the nacelle, as seen from the side, with only the generator 15 and the transformer 17 present for clarity purposes.
• the figure also illustrates a further cable stay 22a complementing the cable stay 22 of fig. 4 i.e. adding a bridge like suspension to the structure by using two (or more) cable stays.
• the cable stays are connected to the structure in connection points 23, 23a on the strut member 19 e.g. in proximity of the connection means 24 for the wind turbine components.
• Fig. 5b illustrates the embodiment of fig. 5a as seen from above.
• the added cable stays 22a are illustrated in the embodiment as diagonally connecting the base frame 20 with the strut member 19 while the cable stays 22 are illustrated as in alignment with the nacelle 3. All the stays may however also be directed diagonally or in alignment with the nacelle 3 in other embodiments of the invention.
• connection means 24 such as bolts, rods or similar attachment means between the two wind turbine components 15, 17 and the two strut members 19 of the embodiment.
• the nacelle structure comprising strut and tie members may also be provided with a crane system allowing a wind turbine component such as a transformer to be released from the strut member(s) and lowered via a nacelle opening to the ground by the crane and/or elevated from the ground level to the members in an installation or replacement action.
• Fig. 6 illustrates a suspension arrangement for the transformer 17 on the strut member 19 of the load carrying structure in the wind turbine nacelle 3.
• the arrangement includes use of a pivoting connection means 24 and movement dampers or actuators 26 in attaching the transformer on the strut member 19.
• the transformer may move back and forth in the longitudinal direction of the nacelle in response to nacelle vibrations but in a restricted manner by the movement dampers.
• Fig. 7 illustrates a further embodiment of the suspension arrangement for the transformer 17, as seen from the rear of the nacelle, wherein the flexibility of the arrangement is enhanced by establishing a cardan functionality allowing the transformer to sway longitudinally and transversely (as illustrated with the arrows) in between the strut members 19 of the two closed structures.
• Transformer for feeding generated power to the utility grid 18.
• Wind turbine component such as generator, power converter or transformer
• Strut member e.g. one or more beams or cable stays 23. Connection for the strut member

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Sustainable Development (AREA)
• Sustainable Energy (AREA)
• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Combustion & Propulsion (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Wind Motors (AREA)

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• 2009
  • 2009-12-11 EP EP09771492A patent/EP2376772A2/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 2009-12-11 WO PCT/DK2009/000253 patent/WO2010069315A2/en active Application Filing

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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