SCADA-based lubrication analysis of wind turbine main bearing under real working conditions

This paper proposes a method for evaluating the lubrication performance of wind turbine main bearings under real working conditions using a SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system. A dataset is established, and simulations are performed to replicate the real meteorological and operational conditions of the wind turbine. The load conditions and lubrication performance of the main bearings are then studied under these real conditions. The results demonstrate that the front main bearing works under mixed and even boundary lubrication regimes, while the back main bearing has a 62.2% probability of working under full film lubrication. Therefore, special attention is required by the front main bearing to improve its lubrication performance under real working conditions.