Danish engineering specialist R&D Test Systems has designed and delivered the world’s largest highly accelerated lifetime testing (HALT) test bench for wind-turbine nacelles at the Danish test center Lindø Offshore Renewables Centre (LORC).
In response to the demand for power from renewable energy sources, the new test rig can accommodate the next generation of larger wind turbines and prove they are capable of operating reliably in extreme offshore conditions.
The HALT XL test bench is mounted on a 30-meter-long concrete base. It features a 25 MW drive motor that is 15 meters in diameter and the system can deliver a tilt moment of 85 million Nm. This allows the test bench to simulate harsh wind conditions.
Exposing prototype wind turbines to pre-defined HALT tests allows manufacturers to make accurate assessments of reliability and can shorten time to market.
“We needed to design a test bench that could expose wind-turbine prototypes to the equivalent of 20 years of weather conditions in just six to eight months,” said Sascha Heinecke, Sales Director, R&D Test Systems.
The HALT XL test bench at LORC uses a stress-testing approach that exposes prototype products to diverse accelerated stresses to discover the physical limitations of a design and ascertain product reliability. The prototypes can be exposed to all the stresses they could reasonably be expected to endure during a 20-year lifetime in 3 percent of that time.
