Wind turbines produce turbulent wakes of slower-moving, chaotic fluid which impact downstream turbines an accelerated process of fatigue damage to mechanical components, in particular the composite bond lines of the blades.
This fellowship brings together various strands of research on the interaction between turbulent flows and wind turbines to optimise the layout of future wind farms; vital to achieving net-zero goals.
The PhD project focuses on modelling the expected fatigue lifetime of composite wind-turbine blades exposed to a turbulent inflow.
There is no such thing as “generic” freestream turbulence, which can be parameterised through quantities such as the turbulence intensity and length scale.
We will conduct state-of-the-art experiments in Imperial College’s wind tunnels to expose wind-turbine models to different “flavours” (varieties) of freestream turbulence.
The data generated in these experiments will be used in conjunction with finite element models of the blades to perform fatigue life-cycle analysis to predict the expected lifetime of wind turbines exposed to different “flavours” of turbulent inflow.
This will be used to produce the merit function (rewarding power production and penalising expected maintenance downtime) that will be used to optimise future wind farms.
The post-holder will gain experience in:
· experimental fluid mechanics using state-of-the-art wind tunnels and measurement techniques;
· turbulence theory and analytical techniques;
· the development and use of finite elements and analytical modelling;
· fatigue life-cycle modelling of composites;
working in a multi-disciplinary team on a large research project.
