Researchers from the Center for Wind Energy at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD Wind) were heavily involved with the world-renowned international conference The Science of Making Torque from Wind (Torque) this past June. Hosted by the TU Delft Wind Energy Institute (DUWind), this 9th edition of Torque was held in the Netherlands and UTD Wind made their presence known as experts in wind energy research.
Torque is a biennial conference organized by the European Academy of Wind Energy (EAWE). The conference aims at providing a forum for discussion and technical exchanges on the most recent advances in the field of wind energy science and technology. Researchers submitted high-quality papers in eight categories that included wind farms, measurements, turbines, artificial intelligence, systems design and future concepts. UTD wind faculty presented in three of the categories as well as chaired two presentation sessions and presented three posters.
For the wind and wind farms category, Dr. Valerio Iungo presented the effects of thrust force on turbine rotors using Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR).1 His research is supported by WindSTAR, an Industry-University Cooperative Research Center funded by the National Science Foundation. Dr. Todd Griffith chaired a presentation session on turbine technology and presented two papers on highly flexible, ultralight rotors2 and designs for a large 25 MW offshore turbine.3 These projects are supported by Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). In the category of controls and monitoring, Dr. Mario Rotea also chaired a presentation session and presented the effects of turbine size on flow controls.4 This project is also supported by ARPA-E along with industry partner Arctura and others.
“We were very pleased with our presence at Torque this year and happy to see our research represented across multiple categories,” stated Dr. Rotea, Director of UTD Wind.
When asked about the significance of this conference, he went on to claim, “this is a very important conference in the wind energy field and the most respected members of the community were in attendance. It makes a strong statement about the work we do at UTD Wind that we not only presented papers and posters, but we chaired presentation sessions that were well attended by conference participants.”
Torque began in 2004 and was held in Delft. It has grown to become the largest scientific conference focused on wind energy in the world. Conference organizers claimed to bring together more than 500 of the world’s leading wind energy researchers from across the globe. Presentations for ground-breaking research featured 112 keynotes and over 200 posters whose solutions will “realize the global ambitions for wind energy as a major energy source and that will help to create jobs, lower electricity bills, mitigate climate change and contribute to energy independence.”5
In addition to the full presentations, researchers from UTD Wind showcased their work during the poster sessions. Dr. Griffith presented the design of offshore wind turbine towers6 and a study on the aerodynamics and controls for vertical axis turbines.7 These projects are also supported by ARPA-E. Finally, Dr. Jie Zhang showed how to integrate a wind farm and a hydrogen plant into a hybrid energy system, a WindSTAR supported project.8
It is safe to say that UTD Wind demonstrated its expertise to the wind energy scientific community in a big way.
For more information on UTD Wind, be sure to follow the center on LinkedIn and Twitter, or visit the website.
[1] Stefano Letizia et al 2022 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 2265 022033
[2] Eric Loth et al 2022 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 2265 032031
[3] Chao (Chris) Qin et al 2022 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 2265 032022
[4] Abhineet Gupta et al 2022 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 2265 032093
[5] Wind energy top scientists together in Delft for torque conference. TU Delft.
[6] Alejandra S. Escalera Mendoza et al 2022 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 2265 032030