Hardware-in-the-loop performance analysis of a railway traction system under sensor faults

Fault mode and effects analysis (FMEA) has been used during decades for analysing the effects of faults in different applications. Initially, FMEA based on risk priority numbers provided information about the effects in the system, but during the last years different approaches have been developed to obtain a more robust risk evaluation. The proposed enhanced FMEA can provide the quantitative effects of sensor faults in a railway traction drive, in variables such as torque, current and voltages. In addition to the previous work, quantitative effects on overall performance indicators, such as energy efficiency and comfort, are obtained too. Hardware-in-the-loop (HIL)-based fault injection approach has been used to generate fault scenarios. The test platform is composed of a real-time simulator and a commercial traction control unit for a railway application

Towards reliability centred maintenance of wind turbines

Reliability centred maintenance applied to a fleet of wind turbines is presented in this paper. The key components and failure modes are identified via analysis of maintenance records. Corrective actions which an operator can take to mitigate such failures are discussed, together with implementation issues. By developing a robust set of RCM tools, wind farm operators can better quantify and minimise operational expenditure of wind farm fleets

Wind turbine productivity considering electrical subassembly reliability

This paper proposes a reliability model for the electrical subassemblies of geared wind turbine systems with induction generators. The model is derived considering the failure of main subassemblies and their parameters are calculated. A productivity comparison is performed between the selected wind turbine systems including reliability issues. Two methods of modification for variable-speed wind turbines with Doubly Fed Induction Generators (DFIG) to improve their availability are finally suggested

Reliability comparison of direct-drive and geared-drive wind turbine concepts

This paper proposes for wind turbines (WTs) an analytical reliability method, used on other engineering systems, to compare the reliability of different turbine concepts. The main focus of the paper is to compare the reliability of geared generator and direct-drive concept WTs. Modification methods are also recommended for improving the availability of WTs and geared generator concept incorporating doubly fed induction generator

Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) for wind turbines

The Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) method has been used to study the reliability of many different power generation systems. This paper now applies that method to a wind turbine (WT) system using a proprietary software reliability analysis tool. Comparison is made between the quantitative results of an FMEA and reliability field data from real wind turbine systems and their assemblies. These results are discussed to establish relationships which are useful for future wind turbine designs. The main system studied is an existing design 2 MW wind turbine with a Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG), which is then compared with a hypothetical wind turbine system using the Brushless Doubly Fed Generator (BDFG) of the same rating. The software reliability analysis tool used for these studies was Relex Reliability Studio 2007 Version 2