Greener Energy Is in the Wind.

Embry-Riddle Engineers Simulate Giant Wind Power Turbines

Mike Desmond, a graduate engineering student at Embry-Riddle, is working with Darris White, associate professor of mechanical engineering, on the windmill simulation project at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado.

Engineers at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University are expanding their renowned expertise in flight simulation to an exciting effort that will eventually result in more wind-generated energy at a lower cost.

Using data from the National Renewal Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Colorado, the Embry-Riddle engineers are developing computer simulations of the operation of giant windmills. The simulations will make it quicker and easier to improve the durability and reliability of large wind turbine blades.

The turbines that harness wind for electrical power are very large – the blades are 150 feet long, weigh 20,000 pounds, and are mounted on 50-story towers – making them difficult to evaluate, according to Dr. Darris White, who is leading the NREL-funded project.

“By making simulations accurate enough to replace testing the actual wind turbines,” says Dr. White, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach, Fla., campus, “we can help make the turbines cheaper to design and build.”

Because wind usually blows only 50 percent of the time, turbines at best operate 50 percent of the time, but with blade failures and downtime for repair, they often work only one-eighth of the time. Better blade design and construction will result in more wind-generated energy at a lower cost.

The project by White and his team is part of a growing body of research by engineering faculty at Embry-Riddle to develop cleaner, more efficient power generation. Other initiatives at the university include the EcoCAR Challenge, a three-year GM-funded project to design more efficient automotive engine technologies, and partnership in the Florida Center for Advance Aero-Propulsion, for which researchers are investigating alternate power sources for jet aircraft.