Work progressing on main bearings test bench for 25-MW wind turbines

Danish wind turbine test specialist R&D Test Systems on Thursday said it has completed the foundation of the test bench for main bearings that it is building for Lindo Offshore Renewables Centre (LORC) at Odense Port in Denmark.

The test bench will be able to test both geared and direct-drive main bearing arrangements for 25-MW turbines.

After completion of the 3,700-tonne foundation, R&D Test Systems is now designing and welding the test bench parts, with delivery planned for 2025.

“The main bearings take the impact of the rotor load and so must be able to withstand any extreme wind load scenarios that could occur with wind turbines as powerful as 25 MW. Our tests will include twisting and bending in all six degrees of freedom,” explaied Peter Winther, key account manager at R&D Test Systems.

Main Bearing Test Facility at LORC, photo credit: R&D Test Systems.

“The test load unit that we are building for LORC’s new Main Bearing Test Facility will be the largest and most capable that R&D Test Systems has developed. This will be the sixth test load unit we build after completing the powertrain validation test bench at ZF Wind Power’s ‘Test & Prototype Center’ in Lommel, Belgium,” added Winther.

The project is supported by a EUR-10-million (USD 11.2m) grant from the Danish GreenLab programme.

(EUR 1 = USD 1.116)

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