Abstract:As the key components of the wind turbine transmission, wind turbine drivetrain is always working under the complex and time-varing conditions, like flexible tower supporting, variable wind and changing load. Thus drivetrain is no wonder the weakest part for the wind turbine and its vibration characteristics determine the reliability and operating life of the wind turbine. This paper proposes a remote on-line test method for drivetrain vibration based on an intellectual monitoring unit named WindCon. The vibration characteristics of the commonly used multi-megawatt wind turbine are summoned through analyzing the collected data in different working conditions. The wind field results show that the vibration of drivetrain is relatively complex, and it’s mainly manifested as a combination vibration of torsion, bending, and waving. Main frequencies of vibration of mainshaft, gearbox, and other parts in drivetrain are gear meshing frequencies and shaft rotating frequencies of each transmission stage especially high speed stage, and are accompanied by rotating frequencies modulation.