Day 1 | ForWind

Minister President Weil visits ForWind – “Oldenburg wind research sets standards”.

forwindadmin — Tue, 13 Sep 2022 13:41:00 +0000

“Excellent research in the field of wind energy” – this is what Lower Saxony’s Minister President Stephan Weil attested today to ForWind, the Center for Wind Energy Research of the Universities of Oldenburg, Hannoverand Bremen. Weil was a guest on Oldenburg’s university campus to learn about the research infrastructure located here together with SPD state parliament members Hanna Naber and Ulf Prange and SPD member of the Bundestag Dennis Rohde. The Turbulence and Wind Energy Systems Laboratory (WindLab), whose centerpiece is a unique turbulence wind tunnel, was inspected. The facility makes it possible to reproduce and analyze the interaction of realistic turbulent wind flows on the one hand and wind turbines and farms on the other in the laboratory.

“Wind energy is not only an absolutely crucial issue for Lower Saxony, its expansion is also of national interest. In order to be able to exploit the potential, we are significantly dependent on the findings of wind energy research. The University of Oldenburg, together with its partners, has been setting standards in this area for many years. This has a positive effect on the entire state,” the Minister President emphasized during his visit.

ForWind bundles wind energy research in the Northwest and connects 30 institutes and working groups from the universities of Oldenburg, Hannover and Bremen. ForWind thus forms a research network that is unique in Germany and covers a broad spectrum of scientific topics. Research focuses on engineering, physics and meteorology, computer science and economics.

Digital twin for optimized wind turbines – Bremen wind researchers launch WindIO project

forwindadmin — Wed, 18 Mar 2020 18:19:34 +0000

In the future, wind turbines are to be operated in a more environmentally friendly and economical way – thanks to a digital twin. Scientists at the University of Bremen are now researching this together with eight partners in the new WindIO project.

Conserving material, supporting maintenance, reducing effort, increasing wind yield – initiated by the Bremen coordination office ForWind – Center for Wind Energy Research (Bremen, Hanover, Oldenburg), a research project has been launched at the University of Bremen that is intended to enable the ecologically and economically optimal operation of wind turbines with the help of a digital twin. For this purpose, ForWind members, the Institute for Integrated Product Development (BIK) and the Institute for Electrical Drives, Power Electronics and Devices (IALB), are developing a research wind turbine into a cyber-physical system.

The title of the three-year research project is “Concept and construction of a cyber-physical system for the holistic development of wind turbines” (WindIO). It has a total budget of 3.1 million euros and is funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy with just under 2.1 million euros in the 7th energy research program “Innovations for the energy transition”. The project is supported by the project management organization Jülich.

In addition to BIK and IALB as research partners, five companies are involved as development and application partners: CONTACT Software (Bremen), Pumacy Technologies (Berlin), fibretech composites (Bremen), Deutsche WindGuard (Varel) and SWMS Consulting (Oldenburg) as well as associated partners Windrad Engineering (Bad Doberan), energy & meteo systems (Oldenburg) and Deutsche Windtechnik Service (Ostenfeld).

Solution lies in the benefit of “digital twin

If the technical possibilities offered by digitization were better exploited, wind turbines (WTGs) could be operated in a more environmentally friendly and economical manner, the project partners are certain. They rely on the “digital twin” for their research and development. This is the virtual image of a real, i.e. physical, system such as a wind turbine. In the WindIO project, the digital twin will represent the dynamic model of the research wind turbine type “Krogmann 15-50” of the IALB in Bremerhaven. A second research wind turbine at the University of Bremen is also being used for WindIO research, a 3.4-megawatt turbine operated by project partner Deutsche WindGuard.

Prediction of operating behavior and service life

In order to be able to digitally map the real conditions in real time, operating data must be permanently recorded and fed into the digital twin. Numerous sensor data are required for this. If the mechanical and electrical components are connected to an information-processing system via a communication network, the plant is referred to as a cyberphysical system (CPS). The Digital Twin is a special application of a CPS. It provides support for testing and forecasting – from manufacturing and logistics to WTG operation and final WTG recycling. Linking with weather and load forecasts, for example, allows prediction of operating behavior and service life. The behavior of plants or their individual components in real operation can thus be better predicted.

Test with Bremen 3.4-megawatt research wind turbine

The software architecture developed on the basis of the Krogmann WTG is to be used in parallel for a digital twin of the second research WTG. In this way, findings on the industrial transferability of the methodology to larger plants can be collected and statements made about the broad-scale effectiveness of the methodology.

“So far, digital twins have not been widely used in wind energy technology. One reason for this is mostly restrictive information management in the wind industry. This delays the development of higher-level operating and optimization strategies, and the potential of digitization cannot be fully exploited,” says Dr.-Ing. Christian Zorn, head of the ForWind coordination office at the University of Bremen. One project goal is therefore particularly close to his heart: “With the WindIO twin, we want to establish a database that enables the exchange of plant-specific information for different user groups.”

Prof. Dr. Elyas Ghafoori is new ForWind member – He succeeds Peter Schaumann

forwindadmin — Wed, 13 Nov 2019 09:09:21 +0000

During a scientific colloquium on February 3, 2023, Prof. Dr. Elyas Ghafoori, Professor of Steel, Composite and Lightweight Structures and Head of the Institute of Steel Structures, gave his inaugural lecture in front of numerous members of the faculty and other guests. His predecessor, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter Schaumann, Professor of Steel Construction at the Faculty since 1996, was given a ceremonial farewell a few days earlier. Elyas Ghafoori also becomes a new member of ForWind and thus continues the tradition of his predecessor Peter Schaumann, who 20 earlier was co-initiator of the foundation of the research center.

In his lecture “Fatigue strengthening of steel structures: use of new materials and technologies”, Prof. Ghafoori gave insights into his previous research at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (Empa) in Switzerland and outlooks on his future research goals. In particular, he presented approaches to sustainability in steel construction in order to contribute to the goals of EU-wide climate neutrality by 2050. In view of rising global demand for steel, such approaches are becoming increasingly important. This includes extending the life cycle of structures such as wind turbines through repair and new types of materials.

In their greetings, the Dean of the Faculty, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Udo Nackenhorst, the scientific spokesman of the ForWind research network, Prof. Dr. Joachim Peinke, and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Raimund Rolfes as Managing Director of the Test Center Support Structures Hannoverexpressed their pleasure at the future collaboration with Prof. Ghafoori and wished him every success. “Wind energy research is still in its start-up phase,” emphasized Prof. Peinke – and thus numerous opportunities for research in this field are still open.

Better imaging of turbulent wind fields – ForWind researchers develop 3D models

forwindadmin — Tue, 12 Nov 2019 14:23:43 +0000

For wind turbine manufacturers, it is important to be able to describe the wind conditions on the rotor blade as accurately as possible, for example to estimate the load on components. Wind farm operators also need to know during the planning stage what wind conditions are to be expected, for example in order to be able to forecast electrical output or noise development.

Using a new statistical model, researchers at the University of Oldenburg have succeeded in reproducing turbulent fluctuations in the wind much more realistically than was previously possible. In addition, the team from the Institute of Physics and the Center for Wind Energy Research ForWind led by Dr. Jan Friedrich developed a method to calculate complete, realistic wind fields from data from a few measurement points using the model, which also depicts strong turbulence and gusts.

With their new model, Friedrich and his Oldenburg colleagues have now succeeded in producing three-dimensional, realistic wind fields, including turbulence, with relatively little computational effort. The statistical properties of the wind field calculated from this can be adjusted by the team as desired so that the strength and frequency of turbulence at the respective location correspond to reality.

The method used to reconstruct complete fields of physical measurands from a limited set of data has broad applicability, according to the team. For example, it could be used to model the concentration of pollutants or the temperature distribution in an urban environment from data from a few measurement points at high resolution.

The work was partly funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection under the EMUwind and PASTA projects.

University of Oldenburg press release: https://www.presse.uni-oldenburg.de/mit/2022/209.html