BOREAS Project: Enhancing Wind Turbine Blade Bearing Reliability and Longevity

Wind turbine blade bearing failures can cause significant damage, such as blade disengagement. These bearings are challenged by oscillating wear and overload, leading to raceway geometry deformation. Real-world conditions, like high winds, can cause plastic deformations and raceway indentations, complicating monitoring, and reliability. BOREAS addresses these issues by testing and monitoring the impact of raceway indentations on failure mechanisms in various scales and simulation environments, aiming to reduce field issues and testing costs as turbine and bearing sizes grow. Moreover, given the large size of wind turbines, access to advanced test facilities for research and development is a growing challenge. BOREAS addresses this by developing more efficient testing approaches, including a shift from physical to virtual testing.

Collaboration for Innovation

The BOREAS project is a joint effort between Denmark’s Technical University (DTU), FORCE Technology—a non-profit technology consultancy—and leading wind turbine manufacturer Vestas. Together, these partners are committed to developing solutions that will 1). demonstrate scalable testing under extreme loads; 2). develop new advanced condition monitoring strategy; and 3). introduce virtual testing for blade bearings, leading to enhanced blade bearing reliability of wind energy for the future. The project is headed by DTU professor, head of the section, Wind Materials and Components Division, Yi Guo; Vestas, Manager and Sub Module Owner, Sarah Grann Luk; and FORCE Technology, Team Leader Hans Henrik Matthiesen.