the partners

• Denmark
  • University of Denmark, DTU
  • DHI Water & Environment
  • Aalborg University
• Germany
  • ISET
  • University of Hannover
  • University of Kassel
  • University of Magdeburg
  • Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg
  • University of Stuttgart
• Greece
  • University of Patras
  • CRES
  • National Technical University of Athens
• Netherlands
  • Delft University of Technology
  • ECN
• Norway
  • SINTEF, IFE and NTNU - Centre for Renewable Energy (SFFE)
• Spain
  • CENER
  • Instituto de Investigación de Energías Renovables (IIER)
  • Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M)
  • Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
  • Universidad Pública de Navarra
• United Kingdom
  • CREST
  • Durham University
  • Imperial College London
  • Manchester Metropolitan University
  • STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
  • University of Manchester
  • The ICC at the University of Strathclyde
  • University of Surrey
  • Queen Mary

Imperial College London

Contact Imperial College South Kensington, London SW7 2AZ, UK. Department of Aeronautics Prof. J. Michael R. Graham phone: +44 (0)20 7594 5100 fax: +44 (0)20 7584 8120 e-mail: ae@imperial.ac.uk web: www.ae.imperial.ac.uk web: www.imperial.ac.uk/aeronautics

Imperial College was founded from three constituent colleges (Royal College of Science, Royal School of Mines and The City and Guilds College (Engineering)) in 1907. A medical school and a business school were added in the 1990s. The College became an independent university (retaining the name Imperial College) in 2007, its centenary year. Aeronautics was first established in the College in 1920 as part of the Royal College of Science. It moved to Engineering as the Department of Aeronautics in 1932. The Department consists of 22 staff divided into an Aerodynamics section, an Aeronautical Structures section and a new research group specialising in Control. Research work in the Department covers both fundamental studies and a wide range of applications. It includes Computational Fluid Dynamics with a strong emphasis on RANS and DNS simulations, experimental aerodynamics from low subsonic up to hypersonic, turbulence research, aircraft configuration research, structural analysis with an emphasis on composite structures and modelling, bio-fluidmechanics, road vehicle aerodynamics, marine technology, wind engineering and wind energy research.

Research groups involved

Research in wind energy has been carried out for about 20 years within the Aerodynamics section in a small group working with Prof. Mike Graham. The main area of research has been horizontal axis rotor aerodynamics, including studies of stalling, stall delay (3-dimensional effects), effects of yaw, incident turbulence and wakes and interactions between rotor blades and the tower or other adjacent structures. The group coordinated the EC Joule project ROTOW which studied Rotor-Tower interaction and carried out all the aerodynamics for the EC Joule project WEB (Wind Energy in the Built environment). Work has also been undertaken relating to Wave Energy (Investigation of the fluid mechanics of the Wells turbine which is used in oscillatory flows generated by waves) and currently the hydrodynamics of tidal stream turbines (studies of blockage effects and added mass in unsteady incident flows) and blade load control in turbulence are being researched. The research techniques used have ranged from measurements of blade pressure distributions on a 17m diameter rotor in the natural wind to smaller scale laboratory measurements in wind tunnels and water channels. In parallel with the experimental work there has been a considerable programme of numerical flow simulation.
The Aerodynamics section has a large programme of work on Marine Technology some of which overlaps with offshore wind energy interests including research into wave and current loads on offshore wind-turbine towers.
The Aeronautical Structures section carries out a large programme of work in structural analysis, including structural dynamics. This work is mainly focused on composite materials, particularly CFRP and is concerned with crack propagation, impact damage and fatigue prediction. Application is general and not particularly directed to wind turbine structures.

Facilities & Advanced Research Tools

Laboratory	Low Speed (up to 40m/s) Wind Tunnels, working sections up to 3m x 1.5m x 10m. High quality water flume (up to 1m/s), working section 0.6m x 0.8m x 7m with computer controlled towing carriage to +/-3m/s. Structural testing equipment, fatigue testing and impact testing equipment.
Measuring equipment	Pressure measuring equipment including multiple pressure blocks with rapid electronic scanning, hot wire, LDA and PIV equipment.
ABL tests	The 3m x 1.5m x 10m wind tunnel has provision to model the atmospheric boundary layer of the natural wind including a range of mean shear and turbulence profiles typically at 1:200 scale. The group has also used the 17m 3-bladed horizontal axis wind turbine at the Rutherford-Appleton test site.
Noise and vibration	The Department has standard equipment for acoustic and vibration measurements.
Computing Resource	Multi-(64) processor machine, and a computing cluster within the Department, access to larger machines within the College.

R&D Strategy

	TERM
	short	medium	long
Rotor blade aerodynamics, particularly unsteady flow resulting from aerodynamic interactions with structures, wakes and incident turbulence.
Aerodynamic control techniques to reduce unsteady loading and increase fatigue life.
Applications of wind turbines in the urban environment.
Tidal stream turbines, free surface interaction effects including waves. Application of reversible turbines to wave energy.

Education and training activities

The Aeronautics Department offers two 1 year taught masters degree courses, one on Composite Materials and one on Advanced Computational Methods for Aeronautics, Flow Management and Fluid Structure Interaction. Neither course is specifically aimed at wind energy problems but both cover techniques which are relevant.