JP2006250034A - Shaft coupling structure of wind power generation device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a shaft coupling structure of a wind power generation device with high reliability increased in a large mis-alignment absorbing amount to facilitate a reduction in the size of the wind power generating device. <P>SOLUTION: In this shaft coupling of the wind power generation device connecting a speed increaser to a generator to transmit a shaft torque, a torque is transmitted through a link member 20 formed by laminating fiber-reinforced plastic thin-sheets on each other. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a shaft coupling structure applied to a wind power generator.

Conventionally, in wind turbine generators, a shaft coupling that transmits a shaft torque by connecting a speed increaser and a generator and absorbs misalignment of both shafts has been used.
As such a shaft coupling for a wind turbine generator, a disk-type coupling in which thin stainless steel plates are stacked is used.

Furthermore, in recent wind turbine generators, there is also a shaft coupling structure that employs a thick plate link system made of fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) as the wind turbine becomes larger.
Further, as a driving coupling used for transmission of shaft torque, a laminating coupling configured by laminating a plurality of thin laminating plates has been proposed in order to improve durability. In this laminate coupling, the intermediate part where a plurality of thin laminates are stacked is sandwiched between the laminate plates on both ends of the thick plate, thereby preventing fatigue failure and improving the reliability of resonance. Is done. (For example, see Patent Document 1)
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-324845 (see FIG. 1)

By the way, with the recent increase in size of wind turbine generators, the increase in aerodynamic load, the increase in size and weight of nacelles has progressed, and in particular, the amount of misalignment at the high-speed shaft connecting the gearbox and the generator has increased. Tend to. However, the conventional disk-type coupling in which thin stainless steel plates are superposed is one of the factors that make it difficult to increase the size of the wind power generator because there is a limit to the amount of misalignment that tends to increase.
From such a background, it is desired to develop a shaft coupling structure of a wind turbine generator that has a large misalignment absorption amount and high reliability.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances. The purpose of the present invention is to increase the amount of misalignment and to provide a highly reliable wind power generator in order to facilitate the enlargement of the wind power generator. It is to provide a shaft coupling structure.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention employs the following means.
A shaft coupling structure of a wind turbine generator according to the present invention is a shaft coupling structure of a wind turbine generator that transmits shaft torque by connecting a speed increaser and a generator, and is made of fiber-reinforced plastic. Torque is transmitted through a link member formed by laminating thin plates.

  According to such a coupling structure of a wind turbine generator, torque is transmitted through a link member formed by laminating thin plates made of fiber reinforced plastic. Transmission can be performed reliably and the amount of misalignment absorbed can be increased.

  In the present invention described above, the link member may have a configuration in which a unidirectional material in which fiber materials are arranged in the same direction and a double bias mat material attached to both end connecting portions of the unidirectional material. Preferably, this makes it possible to optimize the strength characteristics by arranging the fiber materials in substantially the same direction as the tensile stress acting on the link member.

According to the present invention described above, since the link of the highly flexible fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) thin plate is superposed, in addition to reliable torque transmission, the misalignment absorption amount is large and the reliability is high. A shaft coupling structure of a wind turbine generator can be provided. For this reason, the problem of misalignment, which is one of the factors hindering the increase in size of the wind turbine generator, is solved, and a remarkable effect of facilitating the increase in size of the wind turbine generator can be obtained.
In addition, by adopting a shaft coupling structure that absorbs a lot of misalignment, it is not necessary to perform exact centering between the gearbox and the generator at the manufacturing plant and installation site. It is also effective for reduction.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of a shaft coupling structure of a wind turbine generator according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
A wind turbine generator 1 shown in FIG. 8 includes a support column 2 standing on a foundation, a nacelle 3 installed at the upper end of the support column 2, and a rotor head 4 provided in the nacelle 3 so as to be rotatable about a substantially horizontal axis. And have.
A plurality of wind turbine blades 5 are attached to the rotor head 4 in a radial pattern around the rotation axis. As a result, the force of the wind striking the wind turbine blade 5 from the direction of the rotation axis of the rotor head 4 is converted into power for rotating the rotor head 4 around the rotation axis.

Inside the nacelle 3, a speed increaser and a generator (not shown) are housed and installed in order to efficiently generate power by increasing the rotational speed of the wind turbine blades 5 and the rotor head 4 rotated by wind power. The shafts of the speed increaser and the generator are connected to each other via a coupling so that shaft torque is transmitted.
As shown in FIG. 1, a shaft coupling device 10 is provided between the shafts connecting the input shaft 6 and the output shaft 7 of both devices in order to absorb misalignment and transmit torque. The shaft coupling device 10 is configured to transmit torque via a link member 20 formed by laminating a plurality of thin plates made of fiber reinforced plastic (hereinafter referred to as FRP), which is a highly flexible material.

As shown in FIG. 2, the illustrated shaft coupling device 10 is provided at both ends of the shaft portion 12, that is, between the input shaft 6 and the shaft portion 12 and between the output shaft 7 and the shaft portion 12. The link member 20 is arranged.
As shown in FIG. 2 (a), the four link members 20 are obtained by cutting out both ends of a rectangular shape into a substantially semicircular shape, and centering on the central axis (point C) of the shaft portion 12, They are evenly arranged at a pitch of 90 degrees in the circumferential direction on the same plane. Further, the axis L that is the longitudinal direction of each link member 20 passes through the central axis of the shaft portion 12, and is disposed orthogonal to the straight line D that divides the cross-sectional circumferential direction of the shaft portion 12 orthogonal to the central axis into 90 degrees. It is said.

Each link member 20 is fixed with a bolt and nut 13 to a flange 6a whose one end is fixed to the end on the input shaft 6 side, and has a bolt and nut 15 to a support plate 14 whose other end is fixed to the end of the shaft portion 12. It is fixed. That is, each link member 20 has a configuration in which one end is connected to the input shaft 6 side and the other end is connected to the shaft portion 12 side. The portion of the support plate 14 where the link member 20 is connected to the input shaft 6 is not cut out. Similarly, the flange 6a where the link member 20 is connected to the shaft portion 12 has a through hole. 6b (refer FIG. 1) is drilled.
In addition, the output shaft 7 side shown in FIG. 2B is configured such that the arrangement of the link member 20 and the like is rotated 90 degrees in the circumferential direction as a whole, and the other end that fixes one end of the link member 20 outputs Except for the flange 7a of the shaft 7, it is substantially the same as the input shaft 6 side described above. In addition, the code | symbol 7b in FIG. 1 is the through-hole drilled in the flange 7a of the part where the link member 20 is connected with the axial part 12. FIG.

Then, the structure of the link member 20 mentioned above is demonstrated based on FIG.3 and FIG.4.
The link member 20 has a configuration in which connecting portions 22 and 23 are provided at both ends of the thin plate laminate 21. The connecting portions 22 and 23 are configured such that the thin plate laminate 21 is sandwiched from both sides by the flange portion 24 a of the sleeve 24 that penetrates the thin plate laminate 21 and the plate-like member 25. As for the connection parts 22 and 23, the collar part 24a and the plate-shaped member 25 are arrange | positioned at a respectively different surface. The through hole of the sleeve 24 is a hole through which the bolts and nuts 13 and 15 described above are passed.

The thin plate laminate 21 is obtained by laminating a plurality of (for example, seven) FRP thin plates 30 shown in FIG. The FRP thin plate 30 includes a plate member 31 made of a unidirectional member (UD member) in which fiber materials are arranged in the same direction, and a connecting portion in which a double bias mat member (DBM member) 32 is attached to both ends of the plate member 31 on both sides. 33. The FRP unidirectional material used here is a plate material 31 in which fiber materials are arranged in the same direction as the axis L of the link member 20. The double bias mat member 32 is an FRP plate member in which fiber materials are arranged in a plurality of directions (for example, two orthogonal directions) so as to function as a reinforcing member for the connecting portion 33 that receives input from a plurality of directions. In addition, the code | symbol 34 in a figure is a through-hole for inserting the sleeve 24 mentioned above.
In this way, the thin plate laminate 21 in which a plurality of FRP thin plates 30 each having the double bias mat material 32 attached to both ends is laminated is not shown, but actually, between adjacent plate materials 31, A minute gap corresponding to the thickness of two double bias mat members 32 stacked is formed.

Hereinafter, the operation and action of the shaft coupling device 10 having the above-described configuration will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 5 to 7.
FIG. 5 shows a tangential force Ft acting on the shaft coupling device 10 when torque is transmitted from the input shaft 6 to the output shaft 7. The force Ft is transmitted to the bolts and nuts 13 through the flange 6a and the rotation of the input shaft 6 is further transmitted to the support plate 14 through the link member 20 and the bolts and nuts 15. Thus, the torque transmitted to the shaft portion 12 that is integral with the support plate 14 is transmitted to the output shaft 7 in substantially the same manner as the input shaft 6 described above.

When such a force Ft is received, a similar force Ft acts on the link member 20 as shown in FIG. By receiving such a force Ft, as shown in FIG. 7, each plate material 31 acts as a tensile force f. However, a unidirectional material in which fiber materials are arranged in substantially the same direction as the tensile force f is employed. ing. Since this fiber material has a large tensile stress, it is extremely advantageous in terms of strength by utilizing the characteristics of the unidirectional material.
Further, when misalignment occurs between the input shaft 6 and the output shaft 7, a force Fm as shown in FIG. 6B acts on the link member 20. As a result, since the tensile force f acts on the thin plate laminate 21 of the link member 20, the same tensile force f acts on each plate material 31. Therefore, by employing a unidirectional material in which fiber materials are arranged in substantially the same direction as the tensile force f, the link material 20 flexes flexibly to absorb misalignment over a wide range and is extremely advantageous in terms of strength.

That is, according to the coupling structure of the wind power generator described above, torque transmission is performed through the link member 20 formed by laminating thin plate members 31 made of fiber reinforced plastic, so that the link material has a low Young's modulus and high flexibility. The torque 20 can be reliably transmitted, the strength can be improved, the reliability can be increased, and the misalignment absorption can be increased.
The link member 20 is arranged so that the axis L is perpendicular to a straight line D that passes through the center C and divides the circumferential direction, and the one-way material in which the fiber materials are arranged in the same direction as the axis L, Since the structure is combined with a double bias mat material attached to both ends of the directional material, the fiber material is arranged in substantially the same direction as the tensile stress acting in the axial direction of the link member 20 to optimize the strength characteristics. can do.

In addition, since four link members 20 are arranged at a 90-degree pitch so as to be symmetrical, it is possible to cope with torque transmission in the reverse rotation direction.
Depending on the magnitude of the transmission torque, the number of link members 20 can be three. In this case, a compressive force is applied to the link member 20 for torque transmission in the reverse rotation direction.
Further, in the thin plate laminate shown in FIG. 4, the double bias mat is disposed only around the sleeve through holes at both ends. However, depending on the magnitude of the transmission torque and misalignment, the double bias mat is disposed on the entire surface of the thin plate laminate. It is also possible to arrange them.
In addition, this invention is not limited to embodiment mentioned above, For example, it can change suitably in the range which does not deviate from the summary of this invention, such as the lamination | stacking number of the board | plate materials 31.

It is sectional drawing which shows one Embodiment about the coupling structure of the wind power generator which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows the arrangement | sequence of a link member, (a) is AA sectional drawing of FIG. 1, (b) is BB sectional drawing of FIG. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a link member, (a) is a top view, (b) is a partial cross section front view. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) thin plate, (a) is a top view, (b) is a front view, (c) is CC sectional drawing of (a). It is explanatory drawing which shows the direction of force Ft which acts on a link member of FIG.2 (b) by torque transmission. It is explanatory drawing which shows the direction of the force which acts on a link member single-piece | unit, (a) shows the direction of force Ft which acts by torque transmission, (b) has shown the direction of force Fm which acts by absorption of misalignment. . It is explanatory drawing which shows the tensile force f which acts on a fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) thin plate. It is a side view which shows the structural example of a wind power generator.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Wind power generator 3 Nacelle 6 Input shaft 7 Output shaft 6a, 7a Flange 10 Shaft coupling device 12 Shaft part 13, 15 Bolt and nut 14 Support plate 20 Link member 21 Thin plate laminated body 24 Sleeve 24a Eave part 25 Plate-like member 30 Thin plate made of FRP 31 Plate material (unidirectional material / UD material)
32 Double bias mat material (DBM material)

Claims (2)

A shaft coupling structure of a wind turbine generator that transmits shaft torque by connecting a speed increaser and a generator,
A coupling structure of a wind power generator, wherein torque transmission is performed through a link member formed by laminating thin plates made of fiber reinforced plastic.   The said link member is comprised by the unidirectional material which arranged the fiber material in the same direction, and the double bias mat material affixed on the both-ends connection part of this unidirectional material, It is characterized by the above-mentioned. Wind power generator coupling structure.

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