SAFL Welcomes Professor Michele Guala
In January 2011, Michele (pronounced “me-kay-luh”) Guala joined the faculty of St. Anthony Falls Laboratory (SAFL). He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Minnesota. A self-proclaimed experimentalist, his research interests cover a variety of areas, from renewable energies to sediment transport, vortex dynamics and environmental fluid mechanics.
“Italian researchers are mostly known to be good theoreticians, so I had to leave Genoa to pursue my experimental work,” laughed Guala. “My curiosity drives my career, taking me to many places…including the University of Genoa to the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, the Swiss Federal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research, Caltech, and now SAFL.”
As a student and beyond, Guala’s travel and research were driven by a desire to understand turbulence. “I wanted to branch out from the mature field of fluid mechanics and learn more about what happens when you add something to a turbulent flow, such as particles, sediment, or snow,” he said. “I enjoy studying the complications that arise in this ‘turbulence plus’ research. This is especially true with wind energy where you have turbines plus many factors that can affect their performance and energy output.”
A Collaborative Approach to Studying Turbulence
When a position opened up at SAFL, Guala knew it was the right place for him. Through his professional connections, he was already familiar with several faculty members’ work and the Laboratory’s collaborative spirit. “SAFL research brings together all my interests, and a collaborative approach is ideal for studying turbulence,” said Guala. “In environmental science, the problems are broad and every aspect is interconnected. The questions cover many fields and affect our everyday life. Expertise here covers so many areas—biology, fluid mechanics, the atmosphere, rivers, and more—plus we have experimental and numerical research. Working together, we are very strong.”
One of Guala’s current research projects is studying the coupling of wind turbines in realistic terrain and atmospheric conditions. The goal is to determine how to optimize a wind farm layout, maximizing wind flow and power generation. “In a given area, there are some places that would be convenient to put the turbines, but this might not produce the best results,” said Guala. “I’m working to come up with some guidelines on how to distribute turbines in complex terrain, and that’s not easy to do with just numerical modeling. Mean wind magnitude is not the only aspect governing the output of a turbine. With SAFL’s wind tunnel, I try to recreate realistic conditions and control some of the flow conditions, which will help to understand the situation.”
This research is funded by an Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment (IREE) grant from the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment. IREE funding helps to stimulate research that can work up to a larger scale. Guala and his colleagues hope this Early Career Grant will fuel preliminary results for additional research that can be backed by the U.S. Department of Energy or another funding sponsor.
“When there is a call for a big proposal, the whole Laboratory comes together to write it,” said Guala. “We share all the resources here, from the facilities to the ideas. The faculty and staff here are very supportive, and that’s very valuable to me. Being an experimentalist, it’s important for me to have that support.”
Wind Power, River Morphodynamics, and Beyond
Guala is also working on an offshore wind project, one that studies how turbines on floating platforms in an array interact and affect performance. He asks, “What do the waves do to the other turbines? What does the wind do? My challenge is to decouple those factors to study and understand the interactions.”
Beyond wind power, Guala is also interested in sediment transport and river morphodynamics. By studying early stage formation of bedforms, he aims to determine how they are related to the large scale of the flow and the flow’s impact. Existing measurements on fish habitat in SAFL’s Outdoor StreamLab (OSL) show this research could include a strong ecological component. “OSL is a real river but it has controllable flow and tools for measurement,” said Guala. “It’s a good setting to watch vegetation and fish in an environmental context, moving beyond traditional fluid mechanics.”
Making the Right Connections
Now that he’s spent some time at SAFL, Guala feels like he’s right at home. “I told my wife this is really the place for me,” he confirmed. “I need a collaborative environment for optimal performance. SAFL is unique because of the people. There aren’t many places that bring together such high-quality people with expertise in so many different areas. We think together and we propose research activity together. There is great potential for even more collaboration.”
Looking beyond SAFL, Guala noted that communication with the wider public is very important. “Our research covers themes and topics that are very important to everyone these days, such as renewable energy and the changing environment,” he said. “It’s easy to explain to people what I’m doing. My friends and family can understand my work, which helps them connect with me and connect with SAFL.”