A research on the Monte Carlo simulation based on-condition maintenance strategy for wind turbines

Selecting a suitable maintenance strategy is the key of reducing the exorbitant maintenance cost of wind turbines. This paper studies a Monte Carlo simulation based on-condition maintenance strategy for wind turbines. First, the judging criteria of the on-condition maintenance is given. Then, the on-condition maintenance strategy is adopted for the subassemblies with stochastic failures. Combing with the P-F interval (the interval from occurring a potential fault to a failure), the cost model of the on-condition maintenance is established. The model is solved by the Monte Carlo simulation, the optimal maintenance interval and the minimized maintenance cost are obtained. Finally, an application case of the strategy is presented combined with the fault data of the yaw system from the wind turbines in a certain wind farm.