Details of PhD Work:

I am currently working in flow control on wind turbine blades. 

Vortex Generator, a passive flow control device, is used to delay/suppress the boundary layer separation on the turbine blades. 

They energize the lower momentum fluid near the surface by producing stream-wise vortices generated by bringing the high-energy fluid from the free stream into the boundary layer. Vortex generators are an excellent choice for passive flow control, as they can either be retrofitted to the existing blades or manufactured along with the new blades. 

The drag penalty associated with VGs is a concern that needs to be addressed. Airfoil-shaped VGs provide better performance in terms of drag.

OBJECTIVES:

1.  Investigating the effectiveness of airfoil-shaped VGs on wind turbine blades in delaying separation and better aerodynamic performance in terms of drag with:

   • • in-house code (VLM3D)

     • open-source CFD solver, OpenFOAM.

     • Wind tunnel testing.

2.  Dynamic Stall study of wind turbine blade with airfoil-shaped VGs with:

   • • In-house code (UVLM) 

     • CFD using OpenFOAM.