Extracting Energy from Wind and Water: Influence, Manipulation and Control of Boundary Conditions
Michele Guala
Civil, Environmental, and Geo-Engineering, University of Minnesota
ABSTRACT: Energy production from renewable sources as wind, rivers, or tidal streams poses new challenges compared to conventional hydro-power or fossil-fuel plants. Not only is the flow impinging on the energy extracting device varying in time but also the boundary conditions may be varying. This seminar addresses the problem of inflow conditions on horizontal axis turbines deployed in rivers or in the atmospheric surface layer, and it illustrates how progressively complex external perturbations will manifest their signature on the turbine power and structural components. In addition to incoming bedforms in rivers, experiments in flumes or wind tunnels will be explored.The possibility of improving device performance and lifetime is considered, and a few preliminary experimental results are discussed including the case of floating turbines in the occurrence of sea waves. The work of Kevin Howard, Craig Hill, Chris Feist, Mirko Musa, Arvind Singh, Anne Wilkinson and Michael Heisel is gratefully acknowledged.
