Aeroacoustic optimization of urban ducted wind turbines
J.M. (Manoel) Freire Guimarães
Doctoral Candidate
Dr. D. (Daniele) Ragni
Assistant Professor
Ducted wind turbines have shown to reduce the effect of gusts and incoming turbulence by locally increasing the wind velocity at the rotor, while reducing the effective rotor area, allowing for a better employment of the available energy of the wind. This entails building a relatively faster wind turbine with higher rotor speeds, causing a net increase of noise. By optimally designing the gaps between the duct and the turbine, as well by slightly unbalancing the blade vortices, it is possible to increase the flow momentum recovered behind the turbine, allowing for more compact wind turbine farms. The PhD research will focus on the combined aerodynamic and aeroacoustic optimization of a ducted wind turbine, by using both high fidelity simulations and experimental work. The main parameters of interest for the research will focus upon:
1 – design and study of the duct and diffuser parts, in order to maintain max lift performance at the blade level without affecting the generated noise. Study of mitigations solutions for the gap regions will be considered;
2 – airfoil optimization for the relatively lower Re and higher speeds encountered in ducted turbines. Study of the physical 3D loading distribution and phenomena will be carried out towards an optimal airfoil employment.
Manoel has a background in noise and vibration control using numerical and experimental approaches. He worked for three years as a researcher in the Vibration and Acoustics Laboratory (LVA) at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, modeling the vibroacoustic problems resulted from the multiphase flow in expansion devices of refrigerators. Now his main topics of research are aeroacoustics of diffuser-augmented wind turbines and optimization methods.
Daniele Ragni graduated in Thermo-Mechanical Engineering at the Polytechnic University of Marche (2007). Obtained the Ph.D. in 2012 (Faculty of Aerospace Engineering TU Delft) and joined TU Delft at the section of Wind Energy in the AWEP Department in the same year.
