Andrea Giuseppe Sanvito
PhD thesis title: Multi-fidelity unsteady rotor aerodynamic modeling of multi-scale Horizontal and Vertical Axis Wind Turbines
Academic Tutor: Vincenzo Dossena
Academic Supervisor: Giacomo Bruno Azzurro Persico and Alberto Zasso
PhD cycle: 35° (see all student profiles of the same cycle > LINK)
BSc: Industrial Production Engineering, Politecnico di Milano
MSc: Mechanical Engineering - Turbomachinery Track, Politecnico di Milano
TU Delft, Delft, The Netherlands (September 2022 - December 2022)
Best Paper Award ASME Turbo Expo 2019 by Wind Energy Committee / Erasmus+ grant for 3-month external research stay at TU Delft (September 2022 - December 2022)
Thesis abstract
The unsteady aerodynamics of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWTs) under surge and pitch platform motions is studied in the present research. The Actuator Line Model (ALM), implemented in the open-source CFD OpenFoam solver, is employed to simulate the downscaled DTU 10 MW wind turbine model: steady wind inflow, surge and pitch of platform with a combination of several frequencies and amplitudes. Validation is performed in terms of loads, near-wake quantities and Particle Image Velocimeter (PIV) data. Dynamic flow induction is conducted in order to investigate non-linear aerodynamics in FOWT operations. A novel velocity sampling method has been developed to assess angle of attack and improve original implementation.
Personal interest in my research theme
I found Wind Energy as a paramount and attractive field of research. I was eager to be part of the energy transition and play an active role in contributing to the scientific world. With a sharp curiosity about the fluid mechanics and aerodynamics, I flowed into Wind Energy sector. Here, ancestors of wind mills drew my attention with their technology simplicity and, at the same time, their aerodynamic complexity. The climate change challenge fosters us to tackle the tempreture increase above 2°C threshold. I guess the floating offshore wind turbine is able to unleash the entire potential of renewable energies. I am impressed by the flow physics of floating wind turbine interactions and, furthermore, the interconnections with planet boundary layer.
