System-level multi-body simulations of a wind turbine gearbox

Modern industry is largely using computational models to support the design of mechanical sys-tems and to reduce duration and cost of the development process. Multi-Body (MB) simulations allow to simulate large and complex models in dynamic conditions in affordable simulation time thanks to the computational efficiency of the MB solvers. These capabilities can be exploited to simulate complex mechanical systems, such as mechanical transmissions. The complexity of non-linear dynamic phenomena generated during gear meshing, coupled with other mechanical com-ponents (e.g., bearings and flexible supporting shafts), make the system-level dynamic simulation of geared transmissions a very difficult task, where a proper balance between computational effi-ciency and reliability of predictive models is to be searched for. To achieve the wished accuracy without requiring prohibitively large computational time, critical phenomena, such as time-vary-ing mesh stiffness of engaging gears and bearing compliance, must be modeled efficiently, but with sufficient detail. In this work, such a goal is achieved by combining non-linear Finite Ele-ment (FE) static simulations of gear meshing with MB simulations of the entire gearbox. In order to provide of proof-of-concept of the proposed approach, the gearbox of a wind turbine is ana-lyzed through dynamic MB simulations.