Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 11: Structural diagram of the wind turbine adopting vapor-cycle cooling
method: 1, saddle piece; 2, impeller blade; 3, low-speed shaft; 4, gearbox;
5, gearbox heat exchanger; 6, high-speed shaft; 7, control converter;
8, control converter heat exchanger; 9, generator; 10, generator heat
exchanger; 11, cooling medium heat exchanger; 12, vapor-cycle refrig-
erating engine; 13, cooling medium; 14, circulating pump; 15, cooling
medium inlet pipe; 16, cooling medium return pipe; 17, nacelle cover.
and take away the heat produced by these components. The heated cooling medium
fl ows through an evaporator, getting cooled by exchanging heat with the refrigeration
coolant circulating in the vapor-cycle refrigerating engine, and then perform the next
round of cooling driven by circulating pump, which ensures that every component
operates under a proper working condition. One thing worth mentioning is that the
refrigerating engine can use bellows as connections among the cooling medium heat
exchangers so that it will be more adaptable to the rotating working condition of the
nacelle because of the change in wind direction during its running. The condenser
of the refrigerating engine can be installed outside of the pylon in order to enhance
convective heat transfer.
Comparing with the current forced air cooling and the liquid cooling method,
the vapor-cycle cooling system introduces an extra cost of vapor-cycle refrigerat-
ing engine and additional power consumption for the cooling of the medium, how-
ever, it can adjust cooling capacity fl exibly according to the cooling demands, and
also can provide the optimal working condition for the wind turbine which paves
the way for the next generation of high-power wind turbines.
5.2 Centralized cooling method
The current cooling solutions and the one discussed in Section 5.1 all aim at one
single generating set. However, one with a complicated system is a prevalent issue,
which leads to a huge diffi culty for installation and maintenance, and, therefore,
lowers down the operating reliability and the economical effi ciency. Especially, with
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