Reliability model and sensitivity analysis for wind turbine with failure types based on non-identical correlated components

ABSTRACT

Today, wind turbines have a high cost of maintenance. Therefore, designing them with reliable and efficient systems is essential for longer lifespans. When wind turbine components fail, it becomes harmful in various aspects such as economic and environmental pollution, therefore, accurate estimation of wind turbine components reliability is very important. Previous methods to calculate wind turbine reliability assumed that components failures are statistically independent. This paper presents a new technique for the reliability of wind turbine with dependent components failures. The results show that existing components correlation has a major impact, and ignoring it has a significant effect on wind turbine safety.

KEYWORDS:

• Multivariate bernoulli distribution
• poisson distribution
• non-identically correlated components failure
• reliability model
• sensitivity analysis

Notes

1. A wind turbine, or alternatively referred to as a wind energy converter, is a device that converts the wind’s kinetic energy into electrical energy.

2. Horizontal-axis wind turbines are much more widely used, even if it requires a mechanism for orienting the blades.

3. Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) was an American photovoltaics manufacturer of thin-film solar cells made of amorphous silicon used in flexible laminates and in building-integrated photovoltaics. The company was also a manufacturer of rechargeable batteries and other renewable energy related products.

4. Reliability engineering is a sub-discipline of systems engineering that emphasizes dependability in the lifecycle management of a product. Dependability, or reliability, describes the ability of a system or component to function under stated conditions for a specified period of time.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Seyed Mostafa Banitaba

Seyed Mostafa Banitaba Ph.D. student of Industrial Engineering Department of Industrial Engineering, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Isfahan, Iran.

Roya M.Ahari

Roya M.Ahari Doctor of Industrial Engineering Department of Industrial Engineering, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Isfahan, Iran. She received his  Ph.D. Industrial Engineering from Sharif University. Hers research interests include Industrial Engineering.

Mahdi Karbasian

Mahdi Karbasian Doctor of Industrial Engineering Department of Industrial Engineering, Maleke Ashtar University of Technology, Shahinshahr, Iran and Department of Industrial Engineering, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Isfahan, Iran. He received his Ph.D. Industrial Engineering from Isfahan University of Technology. His research interests include Industrial Engineering and System Reliability.