Thermal analysis of a wind turbine generator by applying a model on real measurement data

Generators are the backbone of all electricity generation. Since the wind energy represents one of the key energy sources of the future, generators in wind turbines are the focus of research in the last years. Unlike in the past, wind turbines are more often positioned in arctic as well as in desert like regions, and thereby exposed to harsh environmental conditions. Especially the temperature in those regions is a key factor that defines the design, choice of components and materials of the drive train. To optimize the design and health monitoring under varying temperatures, it is important to understand the thermal behavior dependent on environmental and machine parameters. This paper focuses on the thermal analysis of a 2 MW wind turbine generator. The goal is to estimate the stator winding temperature with a model as straightforward as possible. Boundary conditions are that no additional sensor than the ones already installed in the wind turbine should be used. In this paper, a thermal model for the temperature analysis is presented as well as a sensitivity analysis of the model parameters. The presented results are the base of future research of drive trains under harsh environmental conditions, and they can be used to improve the fault diagnosis and design of power systems.