OWI-Lab’s climatic test facility is used to test and verify wind turbine components and full integrated systems as gearboxes, generators, liquid filled and cast resin transformers, power converters, hydraulic systems, pitch & yaw drives / assemblies, anti- and de-icing systems or coatings, etc…, in extreme climatic conditions to which wind turbines can be exposed in their full lifetime (either during transport, storage, installation and in their operational lifetime). A specific focus of the climatic test lab is in to test cold-start-up sequences, cold climate / winterization effects, and icing conditions on large electro-mechanical equipment.

OWI-Lab’s large climatic test chamber specs:

– Dimensions: 10.6m x 7m x 8m
– Capability to test >150 ton machinery
– Temperature range: -60°C to +60°C
– Thermal cycling possibilities
– Thermal camera to monitor test campaign in extreme temperatures
– 2%RH to 95%RH
– Solar Infrared-heat 10-1000W/m² / 3m x 3m array
– Large cooling capacity: +60°C to -40°C air temp in 1 hour
– Icing & ice-spray tests possible
– Cold start-test-up bench for gearboxes available (10kNM break-away torque)
– Flexible power set-up 50Hz/60Hz up to 10MW for electrical testing load testing

Special test infrastructure for wind power R&D: We house a 2.1MW ‘cold climate’ wind turbine gearbox available to facilitate R&D projects and validation tests on (new) lubricants, (new) cold start-up sequences and the thermal behavior of gearbox auxiliaries. New lubrication systems and new lubricants can be functionally tested and demonstrated in the most extreme conditions in a real life set-up. Also a BIO-Slim KFAF 4MVA offshore wind turbine transformer is available for R&D-projects on cold start-up testing and thermal behavior in general.

The facility is part of Sirris, a collective technology center, meaning that the climatic test facility is also available and used by spill-over industries active in for example: Solar Power / Energy & Grid (e.g. switch gears, inverters, circuit breakers, transformers, GIS-systems,…),  Off-highway vehicles & Mining equipment, Automotive applications, Defence, Telecom, Aerospace, Shipping, etc…

More information and examples of climatic test campaigns in different sector can be found here.

Testing standards that can be supported and are commonly performed:

– Guideline DNVGL-RP-0363 – Extreme temperature conditions for wind turbines

– Guideline DNVGL-OS-A201 – Winterization for cold climate operations

– NEN-EN-IEC 60068-2-1 (cold )
– NEN-EN-IEC 60068-2-2 (dry heat)
– NEN-EN-IEC 60068-2-14 (change of temperature / thermal cycles)
– NEN-EN-IEC 60068-2-30 (damp heat)

– ISO 19897 (conditions of icing tests)

– Thermal shock test according IEC-60076-11 / GOST-R 54827
(cast resin transformers ; class C1 (-5°C) ; C2 (-25°C) ; C3 (-45°C); C4 (-60°C))

A factsheet of the large climatic test chamber can be found here.

Warehouse located at Zuid-Natie breakbulk terminal
BE-2030 Antwerpen

Read more at: http://owi-lab.be/content/climate-chamber-testing