Influences of carrier assembly errors on the dynamic characteristics for wind turbine gearbox

• Considering assembly errors of components, a dynamic model of helical planetary system for wind turbine gearbox was built.
• The effects of different carrier assembly errors (CAEs) on dynamic characteristics of system were investigated.
• The CAEs along different coordinates tend to make dynamic response for dynamic mesh forces (DMFs) of the system largely.
• The frequency responses for DMFs of the system were influenced comprehensively by CAEs along different coordinates.
• The variations for amplitudes and frequency positions of DMFs changed obviously under carrier spatial assembly errors.

Due to the existence of assembly errors, the dynamic characteristics of planetary gear system could be changed compared with the original ideal design. Considering the assembly errors of component, a bending-torsional-pendular coupled vibration model of the 1st helical planetary gear system in wind turbine gearbox was built using lumped parameter method. Then the variable step Runge–Kutta algorithm was applied to solve the dynamic model of helical planetary gear system. The effects of carrier horizontal assembly error, carrier axis assembly error and carrier spatial assembly error on the dynamic characteristics were investigated. Results show that the influence of carrier assembly error along the z-axis on the variations for DTE response of the system is worse than other axis error cases. The carrier assembly errors along the different directions tend to make the dynamic responses for dynamic mesh forces (DMFs) larger. The frequency responses for DMFs of helical planetary gear system are influenced comprehensively by carrier assembly errors along the different directions. The frequency positions of DMFs are reduced under carrier spatial assembly errors (< 2000 Hz).