The Wind Energy group at the University of Waterloo focuses on wind turbine aerodynamics and aeroacoustics (noise). For any wind energy development, the first requirement is an assessment of the wind resource or how much energy is in the wind at that location. Second, once the resource is estimated, a turbine needs to be built to convert the energy of the wind into valuable electricity. Many factors affect the development of a wind project including any potential effects of acoustic emissions.
The Wind Energy Group has research interests in the following general research areas:
- Wind energy and wind turbines
- Large grid-connected wind turbines
- Off-grid hybrid wind systems for remote communities
- Wind Turbine Data Acquisition and Control
- Measurement/Design/Analysis
- Blade aerodynamics
- Blade aeroacoustics
- Large scale PIV
- Winglets and wing tips for turbines
- Wind resource assessment
- Dynamic stall
- Oscillating airfoils
Please see the Projects listing at the top for more details.
If you are a motivated researcher, have excellent experimental skills and would like to pursue graduate work leading to a MASc or PhD in Mechanical Engineering with specialization in Wind Energy please contact Professor Johnson (details in Contact us).