Cyclostationary Analysis of a Faulty Bearing in the Wind Turbine

Abstract

Bearing faults occur frequently in wind turbines, thus resulting in an unplanned downtime and economic loss. Vibration signal collected from a failing bearing exhibits modulation phenomenon and “cyclostationarity.” In this paper, the cyclostationary analysis is utilized to the vibration signal from the drive-end of the wind turbine generator. Fault features of the inner and outer race become visible in the frequency–cyclic frequency plane. Such fault signatures can not be produced by the traditional demodulation methods. Analysis results demonstrate effectiveness of the cyclostatonary analysis. The disassembled faulty bearing visualizes the fault.