Keeping the lights on after the storm: Simulating large wind turbines in above-design wind conditions

As part of the Energy Futures Lab Sustainable Power webinar series, Dr Mohsen Lahooti discusses his research on the simulation of large wind turbines in above-design wind conditions.

Abstract

Air, water and sun (wind, hydro- and solar energy) have become the renewable sources for our carbon-free future. Yet wind blows the strongest in a storm. The worldwide capacity of installed wind energy increased about 33-fold between 2000 and 2019 by virtue of the increasing number of wind farms and the use of modern wind turbines that feature large components for better extraction of wind energy. However, while such large components enable better extraction of wind power, their use introduces more flexibility to the turbine components which imposes new design considerations, particularly for off-design conditions such as extreme weather conditions that can affect life span of the turbine. In this talk, we will look at wind flow and turbine interaction in the off-design condition such as extreme wind speeds and storms, varying wind direction, typhoons and oceanic waves which can trigger phenomena such as vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) and blade edgewise oscillation. We will discuss how such interactions and VIV would possibly leads to high aeroelastic response, resonant excitation or fatigue loading of the turbine structure and eventually causing cracks and fractures, buckling, blow down or snapping of turbine’s blades and/or tower resulting in critical damage to a single wind turbine or an entire wind farm. Special focus will be placed on the VIV of blades in stand-still condition and simulation methods for analyzing such conditions as well as their challenges.

Biography

Mohsen is a research associate at Department of Aeronautics, Imperial College London. He joined Imperial College in December 2019 where he is developing a high-fidelity numerical method for wall-resolved Fluid-Structure interaction simulation of wind turbine blades as a part of EU funded project High Performance Computing in Wind Energy (HPCWE). Prior to joining Imperial, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Applied Fluid Mechanics Lab, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). He has more than ten years of experience in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and his research interests include developing numerical methods and computational fluid dynamics, Fluid-Structure interaction (FSI), renewable energies with special focus on wind and hydro turbines and bio-inspired fluid dynamics.

About Energy Futures Lab

Energy Futures Lab is one of six Global Institutes at Imperial College London. The institute was established to address global energy challenges by identifying and leading new opportunities to serve industry, government and society at large through high quality research, evidence and advocacy for positive change. The institute aims to promote energy innovation and advance systemic solutions for a sustainable energy future by bringing together the science, engineering and policy expertise at Imperial and fostering collaboration with a wide variety of external partners. The Energy Futures Lab daytime seminars are delivered by staff and students from across the College and further afield.

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