A system and method employing wear debris sensors to monitor the operation of a lubricated mechanical system such as a gearbox (e.g., in a wind turbine), a transmission or an engine in order to control operation of the gearbox in order to reduce damage and/or extend the useful life of the gearbox.

One object is to promptly and accurately sense an abnormal state of a wind turbine driving device. The wind turbine driving device includes a driving device body and a sensor. The driving device body is installed in one structure at a movable section of a wind turbine. The driving device body includes a meshing portion meshing with a ring gear installed in the other structure at the movable section of the wind turbine. The sensor measures a change in installation state of the driving device body with respect to the one structure.

A method for monitoring and controlling a wind turbine to minimize rotor blade damage includes receiving sensor data from one or more sensors indicative of at least one blade parameter of the rotor blade over a predetermined time period. The method also includes trending the sensor data for the predetermined time period with respect to at least one wind parameter. Further, the method includes determining at least one characteristic of the trended sensor data. Moreover, the method includes comparing the at least one characteristic of the trended sensor data to an operating threshold. In addition, the method includes implementing a control action if the comparison of the at least one characteristic of the trended sensor data and the operating threshold indicates blade damage is occurring or is likely to occur.

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.

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.

A method for controlling wind turbine farm level loads by control strategy through site-specific topology effects. The method involves the steps of: providing wind velocity data from wind sensors mounted on the wind turbines, the velocity data comprising wind speed and wind direction; providing wind velocity data from one or more reference sensors, the velocity data comprising wind speed and wind direction; binning the wind data according to wind speed and wind direction; identifying wind turbines in which the velocity data deviates from the reference; and calculating modified loads acting on the wind turbines where the velocity data deviates from the reference; whereby the control strategy and/or maintenance activities are revised. A method for extending (or reducing) life of a wind turbine, altering performance (increased Annual Energy Production, AEP) (operational), or reducing cost through structural material reduction (design) is further disclosed. The approach can be used for scheduling maintenance for wind turbines in a wind farm.

The present disclosure relates to methods for protecting one or more components of a wind turbine during yawing of the wind turbine. The present disclosure further relates to wind turbines. A method for protecting one or more components of a wind turbine during yawing of the wind turbine comprises monitoring one or more parameters indicative of a yaw torque required to position a wind turbine rotor with respect to a prevailing wind direction, detecting that one or more of the parameters indicative of yaw torque reach or exceed a predetermined threshold, and in response to the detection, reducing load imbalance in the wind turbine rotor.

A method for operating a wind turbine for generating a settable turbine power, where the wind turbine includes a rotor having rotor blades adjustable in their blade angle, is operable at a settable rotor speed, and is installed at an installation site at a distance to an obstacle, comprises the obstacle causing a wind disturbance, which, in dependence on current wind direction and wind velocity, can reach the wind turbine as a wind wake, and the wind turbine reducing its turbine operation by throttling down for protection against loads due to the wind wake, wherein the throttling down is controlled in dependence on the current wind direction and the current wind velocity, wherein a weather prediction is used in order to take into consideration at least one further weather property in addition to the wind direction and wind velocity, and wherein the throttling down is additionally controlled in dependence on the weather prediction, in particular on the further weather property.

Control methods and systems of a wind turbine belonging to an off-shore wind park that use, in case of malfunction of the load measuring system, one of the following pitch vectors for the calculation of the individual pitch command of each blade: the pitch vector being applied at the same time in one wind turbine of the wind park where the load measuring system works properly a mean value of the pitch vectors being applied at the same time in a group of wind turbines of the wind park where the load measuring system works properly; the pitch vector resulting from a control law, obtained from historic records of the wind turbine when the load measuring system worked properly, defining the pitch vector as a function of at least the wind speed V, if the former pitch vectors are not available.

The present disclosure is directed to a method for reducing loads of one or more rotor blades of a wind turbine. The method includes monitoring a load of a first rotor blade. If the load of the first rotor blade exceeds a first load threshold, the method also includes designating a rotor plane sector in which the first rotor blade is located as a high load rotor plane sector. The method further includes adjusting, via a pitch drive mechanism, a pitch angle of a second rotor blade toward a first position before the second rotor blade enters the high load rotor plane sector.