A system includes a wind turbine having a fixed part and a rotational part and a brake having a brake disk mounted to the rotational part for rotation with the rotational part. At least one brake block is fixed relative to the fixed part and has a friction surface facing the brake disk. The brake block is shiftable between a first position with the friction surface spaced from the brake disk and a second position with the friction surface in contact with and pressed against the brake disk, and the friction surface and/or the brake disk are configured such that pressing the at least one brake block against the brake disk creates a micro-interference fit between the at least one brake block and the brake disk.

A wind turbine system includes: a ring gear; a yaw drive unit including a pinion gear meshing with the ring gear, the yaw drive unit being configured to rotate the pinion gear; a yaw brake unit configured to generate a braking force for inhibiting rotation of the ring gear; a load information acquiring unit configured to acquire an external load applied to the ring gear; and a control unit configured to release the braking force of the yaw brake unit when a rotational torque generated on the ring gear by the yaw drive unit has been larger than the external load acquired by the load information acquiring unit, in switching the ring gear from a stationary state to a rotating state.

A pinion of an output portion meshes with a ring gear of a wind turbine. A first friction plate is coupled to an output shaft of an electric motor at an end of the output shaft situated further from a speed reducer. A second friction plate contacts with the first friction plate and serves as a brake on the output shaft. Elastic members bias the second friction plate toward the first friction plate. Electromagnet biases the second friction plate in the direction in which the second friction plate is separated from the first friction plate. A detector detects a position and a displacement of a detection target portion fixed on the second friction plate. Based on a result of detection performed by the detector, operation of the second friction plate is detected and checked, and the wear amount of the first friction plate and the second friction plate is detected.

One object is to improve the control upon detecting an excessive load in the movable section of a wind turbine, thereby to raise the capacity utilization of the wind turbine. A wind turbine drive system includes: a plurality of driving devices installed in one structure at a movable section of a wind turbine, each of the plurality of driving devices including a drive gear meshing with a ring gear installed in another structure at the movable section of the wind turbine; a state quantity detection unit for monitoring, for each of the plurality of driving devices, a load generated between the drive gear of each of the plurality of driving devices and the ring gear; and a control unit for performing control for reducing the load when the state quantity detection unit detects an abnormal load.

A monitoring system for monitoring a time period of a locking state of a rotor of a wind turbine includes at least one motion sensor and at least one computing unit, wherein the computing unit is configured to receive at least one motion measurement from the at least one motion sensor and wherein the computing unit is configured to determine whether the rotor may remain in the locking state or the rotor should be unlocked based on the at least one motion measurement. A wind turbine having the monitoring system and a method for monitoring a time period of a locking state of a rotor of a wind turbine is also provided.

For each of actuators, the partial load ratio is output. An output device for a drive device of a wind turbine includes an obtaining unit for obtaining information relating to a load applied to each of a plurality of actuators, where the actuators are included in the drive device of the wind turbine and configured to cooperate with each other, a processing unit for, based on the information obtained by the obtaining unit, calculating a partial load ratio, where the partial load ratio represents a ratio of a load on each of the actuators to a total load and the total load is a sum of the loads on the respective actuators, and an output unit for outputting the partial load ratio.

A generator-gearbox arrangement for a wind turbine includes a generator having a stator and a rotor interacting with one another, a functional component arranged on an end side of the generator and including an extension which points toward the rotor, and a magnetic rail brake arrangement including component parts fastened to the extension. The magnetic rail brake arrangement is designed to apply a braking action which is based on an operating principle of electromagnetic attraction between the magnetic rail brake arrangement and at least one of the rotor and the functional component.

Adjustment and/or drive units that can be used in wind turbines to set the azimuth angle of the wind turbine nacelle or the pitch angle of the rotor blades, wherein such an adjustment and/or drive unit has at least two actuating drives for rotating two assemblies, which are mounted for rotation relative to each other, and has a control device for controlling the actuating drives, which control device controls the actuating drives in such a way that the actuating drives are braced in relation to each other during the rotation of the two assemblies and/or at a standstill of the assemblies. The invention further relates to a wind turbine having such an adjustment and/or drive unit and to a method for controlling such an adjustment and/or drive unit.

Rotor restraining and rotating apparatus and methods for a wind turbine (1) are described. An apparatus (200) has a rotatable control element (204) associated with a rotor (8, 203) of the wind turbine, the control element being at least part-circular in form, the control element comprising a plurality of engagement formations (205) disposed on a periphery thereof. The apparatus also has a control member (206), comprising a plurality of engagement formations (207). The control member is movable (208) in a first degree of freedom between: (a) a non-restraining position; and (b) a restraining position in which the control member engagement formations are able to engage the control element engagement formations to restrain rotation of the control element. The control member is also movable (209) in a second degree of freedom. In the restraining position, on movement of the control member in the second degree of freedom, the control member engagement formations are operable to move the control element engagement formations thereby to cause rotation of the control element.

A wind power generating device includes: a power source assembly and a power generating assembly, the power source assembly including a brake disc and a brake actuator, the brake actuator being configured to swing around a lever fulcrum, and the brake actuator being provided with a wind collector on one side with respect to the lever fulcrum to receive wind force and a brake pad corresponding to the brake disc on the other side such that when the wind collector swings backward because of wind force from the front, the brake pad relatively swings frontward to touch the brake disc by leverage so as to apply a brake force to a rotor component of the power source assembly, and the power generating assembly including a maximum power point tracker (MPPT) such that the generated electric energy is stored to an energy storage element under control of the MPPT.