Fluid flow and heat transfer of a novel passive cooling system for gearless wind turbines with a power range of 3–12 MW

Today, the gearless horizontal axis wind turbines are mainstream in wind energy industry. High demands of electric power led to bigger systems and active cooling reduces the overall efficiency of the turbines. Passive cooling systems have been examined for the first time for a gearless wind energy generator with power range of 3–12 MW. With further developed heat conductors, it is possible to operate a wind generator in a larger power class with passive cooling components. This is accompanied by enormous cost savings due to elimination of costs for active cooling elements such as the use of fans, pumps, and heat exchangers. An additional factor is the significant reduction in necessary maintenance due to the minimized incidence of corrosion and wear. Design of the cooling fins and an ideal position of the generator within the housing of the wind turbine has been objectives. Mandatory is that maximum temperatures of the generator fins should stay under 155 °C, which could be reached with several designs for different heat exchanger geometries. • Introduction of the novel design of a gearless wind turbine. • Passive cooling for gearless wind turbine generators. • Simulation of flow and heat transfer for different passive cooler designs. • Development and experimental investigation of aluminum fin designs. • Comparison between wind tunnel experiments and simulation.