Research

Wind and marine energy research at Heriot-Watt includes a diverse range of research skills, through experimental measurement, to microsensors development, and fluid dynamics modelling. Many past projects at Heriot-Watt have involved collaboration with companies in the renewable energy sector, and continuing to draw on these partnerships will help to realise both exciting research and economic benefits to the energy industry.

Unique software has been developed at Heriot-Watt to model wind and tidal marine turbine farms, using cutting-edge computational fluid dynamics techniques to give estimations of the energy yield of the turbines in a given environment. Fully three-dimensional, the model is partly based on the well-established Blade Element Method (BEM), which gives it a tried and trusted approach to parameterising turbines. The extensions to this theory and the use of state-of-the-art computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software allow this model to be completely dynamic, so the performance of each turbine changes in response to the continually evolving flow conditions within a turbine farm simulation.

The group also aims to develop condition monitoring technologies through use of microsensor (MEMS) technologies in both wind and marine environments, seeking to answer the challenge of reliable operation that extreme environments can bring.