TY - JOUR

T1 - Exploring the Causes of Power-Converter Failure in Wind Turbines based on Comprehensive Field-Data and Damage Analysis

AU - Fischer, Katharina

AU - Pelka, Karoline

AU - Puls, Sebastian

AU - Poech, Max Hermann

AU - Mertens, Axel

AU - Bartschat, Arne

AU - Tegtmeier, Bernd

AU - Broer, Christian

AU - Wenske, Jan

N1 - Funding Information: This research was to a large part carried out within the “Fraunhofer-Innovationscluster Leistungselektronik für regenerative Energieversorgung” (Innovation Cluster on Power Electronics for Renewables), which was funded by the German Federal State of Lower Saxony with funds from “Niedersächsisches Vorab” and by Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. To a minor part, the work was carried out within the project HiPE-Wind funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, grant number 0324219B. The authors thank the project partners in the Innovation Cluster, namely Availon, Bender, energy consult, EWE, FeCon, Gothaer Allgemeine Versicherung, ITEC International, juwi Operations & Maintenance, Leine Linde Systems, Semikron, SSB Wind Systems, Suzlon, Vattenfall, Woodward Kempen, wpd windmanager technik and ZOPF Energieanlagen, for providing the field data and defect components analyzed in this project, for sharing their experience and/or contributing to the root-cause analysis discussions.

PY - 2019/2/2

Y1 - 2019/2/2

N2 - Power converters are among the most frequently failing components of wind turbines. Despite their massive economic impact, the actual causes and mechanisms underlying these failures have remained in the dark for many years. In view of this situation, a large consortium of three research institutes and 16 companies, including wind-turbine and component manufacturers, operators and maintenance-service providers has joined forces to identify the main causes and driving factors of the power-converter failures in wind turbines to create a basis for effective remedial measures. The present paper summarizes and discusses the results of this research initiative, which have been achieved through the evaluation of converter-specific failure and operating data of a large and diverse worldwide wind-turbine fleet, field measurements as well as post-mortem investigation of returned converter components. A key conclusion of the work is that the thermal-cycling induced fatigue of bond-chip contacts and die-attach solder, which is a known issue in other fields of power-electronics applications and which has been widely assumed to be the principle damage mechanisms also in wind turbines, is no relevant contributor to the observed converter failures in this application. Instead, the results indicate that environmental factors such as humidity and contamination but also design and quality issues as well as human errors play an important part in the incidence of these failures.

AB - Power converters are among the most frequently failing components of wind turbines. Despite their massive economic impact, the actual causes and mechanisms underlying these failures have remained in the dark for many years. In view of this situation, a large consortium of three research institutes and 16 companies, including wind-turbine and component manufacturers, operators and maintenance-service providers has joined forces to identify the main causes and driving factors of the power-converter failures in wind turbines to create a basis for effective remedial measures. The present paper summarizes and discusses the results of this research initiative, which have been achieved through the evaluation of converter-specific failure and operating data of a large and diverse worldwide wind-turbine fleet, field measurements as well as post-mortem investigation of returned converter components. A key conclusion of the work is that the thermal-cycling induced fatigue of bond-chip contacts and die-attach solder, which is a known issue in other fields of power-electronics applications and which has been widely assumed to be the principle damage mechanisms also in wind turbines, is no relevant contributor to the observed converter failures in this application. Instead, the results indicate that environmental factors such as humidity and contamination but also design and quality issues as well as human errors play an important part in the incidence of these failures.

KW - Field data

KW - Post-mortem analysis

KW - Power converter

KW - Power electronics

KW - Reliability

KW - Root-cause analysis

KW - Wind power

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85061962309&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.3390/en12040593

DO - 10.3390/en12040593

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85061962309

VL - 12

JO - ENERGIES

JF - ENERGIES

SN - 1996-1073

IS - 4

M1 - 593

ER -