Updated wind turbine gearbox multibody model with optimized flexible housing to deliver inputs for acoustic calculations

Abstract

Wind turbine design requirements are increasingly focussing on vibration and noise emission levels. In addition to the rotor and blades also the drive train is a contributor to the overall noise and vibrational behaviour of the wind turbine. Therefore good dynamic design of the drivetrain is highly important. With regard to acoustic radiation both excitations at gearbox input and output as internal excitations originating from the gears are important. Two acoustic phenomena are investigated: structure borne excitation past by/comming from the gearbox through the nacelle to the receiver and airborne noise directly radiated from the gearbox housing. This work discusses the use of a flexible multibody in combination with a Boundary Element Model (BEM) to asses these phenomena. The multibody model is used to calculate the housing vibrations. A method is discussed to convert these deformations at the structural mesh nodes to the nodes of the BEM mesh.status: accepte