Wind resource in the urban environment

Renewable energy technologies, such as windturbines, have to be considered for new buildingover 1000m2 under the Energy Performance ofBuildings Directive (2002). Accurate assessment ofthe wind resource is a key component in the successof a wind installation. Designers, planners andarchitects also need wind data from urban areas tosupport low-energy building design, naturalventilation, air quality, pollution control, insuranceand wind engineering. Over the last six years instrumentation has been installed at the DublinInstitute of Technology (DIT) in two separate locationsto monitor the wind. The data has shown that thewind resource will vary quite considerably on a givensite and this is due to local variations in topography,and other factors associated with wind andturbulence in the built environment. Difficultieswere encountered in measuring the wind andturbulence on site. IEC 61400-12-1: 2005 states that“... analytical tools (anemometers presently available)offer little help in identifying the impact of thesevariables, and experimental methods encounterequally-serious difficulties.” The practical experienceof measuring wind in the urban environmentinformed the development of a prototypeanemometer that may be capable of digitallymapping accurate real-time three-dimensional dataon wind speed, wind direction and, uniquely in thefield of wind instrumentation, wind turbulence

LOW-COST REMOTE WEATHER INFORMATION SYSTEM PHASE I AND PHASE 2

Remote Weather Information Systems (RWIS) are an important part of deciding maintenance activities and scheduling. However, the cost of RWIS limits the number of systems that can be deployed. Because of the lack of power and the high power budget of commonly used systems, some locations are not suitable for RWIS even though the information would be of great value. This project focuses on the development of a low-cost, low-power RWIS that is suitable for remote locations and allows for a higher density of RWIS. The system produced under this study uses less than 10 watts of power and costs less than $10,000 for the basic system. The system has performed well in Fairbanks, Alaska, over two winters. In addition, the system has been fully integrated into the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities RWIS network.WeatherCloud Inc

Flyover-noise measurement and prediction

Details are presented for the measurement and prediction of aircraft flyover noise to be used for certification, research and development, community noise surveys, airport monitors, and pass fail criteria. Test details presented are applicable to all types of aircraft, both large and small, and the use of Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) Part 36 (ref. 1) is emphasized. Accuracy of noise measurements is important. Thus, a pass-fail criterion should be used for all noise measurements. Finally, factors which influence the sound propagation and noise prediction procedures, such as atmospheric and ground effects, are also presented

Designing Wind Turbine Condition Monitoring Systems Suitable for Harsh Environments

Research into wind turbine condition monitoring is continually receiving greater attention due to the potential benefits from condition monitoring systems (CMS). These benefits can only be realised with high reliability of the condition monitoring system itself. This paper discusses how CMS reliability can be increased, by introducing four types of robustness and how to design the CMS to meet these requirements. The paper uses a case study CMS installation to illustrate the design requirements, and lessons learned from the installation process

Adaptive Signal Processing Strategy for a Wind Farm System Fault Accommodation

In order to improve the availability of offshore wind farms, thus avoiding unplanned operation and maintenance costs, which can be high for offshore installations, the accommodation of faults in their earlier occurrence is fundamental. This paper addresses the design of an active fault tolerant control scheme that is applied to a wind park benchmark of nine wind turbines, based on their nonlinear models, as well as the wind and interactions between the wind turbines in the wind farm. Note that, due to the structure of the system and its control strategy, it can be considered as a fault tolerant cooperative control problem of an autonomous plant. The controller accommodation scheme provides the on-line estimate of the fault signals generated by nonlinear filters exploiting the nonlinear geometric approach to obtain estimates decoupled from both model uncertainty and the interactions among the turbines. This paper proposes also a data-driven approach to provide these disturbance terms in analytical forms, which are subsequently used for designing the nonlinear filters for fault estimation. This feature of the work, followed by the simpler solution relying on a data-driven approach, can represent the key point when on-line implementations are considered for a viable application of the proposed scheme

Renewable energy technology options for Parihaka Papakāinga : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Engineering in Renewable Energy Systems at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand

The Parihaka Papakāinga Trust - the administering body of communally owned Māori land at Parihaka, Aotearoa New Zealand - initiated university research into sustainable energy practices and technologies within a context of community and infrastructure development. As one part of this wider research topic, various renewable energy conversion technologies were compared in terms of cost, effect on increasing the energy independence of the papakāinga (excluding transport, covered elsewhere), and reducing papakāinga greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Consumption of electricity, LPG and firewood was assessed in 14 study buildings over 12 months. Energy demands both now and also for hypothetical scenarios 20 years in the future were proposed, taking into account energy efficiency opportunities, low energy housing design and potential electric vehicle charging loads from parallel research. The local solar, wind and hydro potentials were assessed over 12 months, and estimations of the long-term resources were made using long-term reference data from the region. An estimation was also made of land area requirements to support a short rotation coppicing (SRC) fuelwood plantation. The technical and economic performance of a range of electricity and heat generation technologies was modelled, both on an individual building basis and on a community-wide basis. The technologies with the largest expected economic benefits (after energy efficiency and building design) were a grid-connected community solar PV array with output available for consumption by as much of the papakāinga as possible, and wood-burners for space and water heating in new homes. However further study is required into the design and costs of a feasible metering and billing solution to allocate the benefits of community owned distributed electricity generation. The technologies with the largest expected effect on energy independence include combining solar water heaters with wood-burners and wetbacks for space and water heating, and producing firewood locally with an SRC plantation. Based on the household study, transport behaviours or technologies are expected to have a larger effect on GHG emissions than papakāinga infrastructure. Recommendations include a billing/metering feasibility study potentially followed by a community PV array, an SRC trial, and solar water heaters and wood-burners with water heating for new homes

Reduction of JT8D powered aircraft noise by engine refanning

The technical feasibility is described of substantially reducing the noise levels of existing JT8D powered aircraft by retrofitting the existing fleet with quieter refan engines and new acoustically treated nacelles. No major technical problems exist that preclude the development and installation of refanned engines on aircraft currently powered by the JT8D engine. The refan concept is technically feasible and provides calculated noise reductions of from 7 to 8 EPNdb for the B727-200 aircraft and from 10 to 12 EPNdb for the DC-9-32 aircraft at the FAR Part 36 measuring stations. These noise levels are lower than both the FAR Part 36 noise standards and the noise levels of the wide-body DC-10-10. Corresponding reductions in the 90 EPNdb footprint area are estimated to vary from about 70 percent for the DC-9 to about 80 percent for the B727

An inventory of aeronautical ground research facilities. Volume 1: Wind tunnels

A survey of wind tunnel research facilities in the United States is presented. The inventory includes all subsonic, transonic, and hypersonic wind tunnels operated by governmental and private organizations. Each wind tunnel is described with respect to size, mechanical operation, construction, testing capabilities, and operating costs. Facility performance data are presented in charts and tables

Controlling evaporation loss from water storages

[Executive Summary]: Evaporation losses from on-farm storage can potentially be large, particularly in irrigation areas in northern New South Wales and Queensland where up to 40% of storage volume can be lost each year to evaporation. Reducing evaporation from a water storage would allow additional crop production, water trading or water for the environment. While theoretical research into evaporation from storages has previously been undertaken there has been little evaluation of current evaporation mitigation technologies (EMTs) on commercial sized water storages. This project was initiated by the Queensland Government Department of Natural Resources and Mines (NRM) with the express aim of addressing this gap in our knowledge. The report addressed i) assessment of the effectiveness of different EMT’s in reducing evaporation from commercial storages across a range of climate regions, ii) assessment of the practical and technical limitations of different evaporation control products, and iii) comparison of the economics of different EMT’s on water storages used for irrigation

Structural validation of a realistic wing structure: the RIBES test article

Several experimental test cases are available in literature to study and validate fluid structure interaction methods. They, however, focus the attention mainly on replicating typical cruising aerodynamic conditions forcing the adoption of fully steel made models able to operate with the high loads generated in high speed facilities. This translates in a complete loss of similitude with typical realistic aeronautical wing structures configurations. To reverse this trend, and to better study the aerolastic mechanism from a structural point of view, an aeroelastic measurement campaign was carried within the EU RIBES project. A half wing model for wind tunnel tests was designed and manufactured replicating a typical metallic wing box structure, producing a database of loads, pressure, stress and deformation measurements. In this paper the design, manufacturing and validation activities performed within the RIBES project are described, with a focus on the structural behavior of the test article. All experimental data and numerical models are made freely available to the scientific community