Electrical & Computer Engineering, Department of

 

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2011

Citation

North American Power Symposium (NAPS), 2011 doi: 10.1109/NAPS.2011.6025116

Abstract

Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) has already been used as a qualitative measure for identifying failure modes and causes, in order to mitigate the effects of failure in different sectors of power systems. This paper presents a quantitative approach called Risk-Based-FMEA, based on the failure probabilities and incurred failure costs instead of rating scales. As a case study, this approach has been applied to a direct drive wind turbine. The results show that the definition of failure modes priorities based on their contribution to the total failure cost of the wind turbine is more realistic and practical than the common FMEA approach. Using MS Excel spreadsheet platform, the proposed method can be generalized for different types of wind turbines. In addition, the effective failure cost factors are investigated through sensitivity analysis, by which the wind turbine owner can determine the suitable approach to reduce the total failure cost.

Share

COinS