WP6: Wind Engineering

The overall objectives of this work package includes

  • Apply lidar technology to bridge aerodynamics to facilitate design and planning
  • Apply lidar technology to wind farm control to increase power production and reduce loads
  • Apply lidar technology to airports in order to increase safety and reduce time between take-offs.

A number of wind sensitive long-span bridges are planned in Europe, especially in Norway where they are situated in complex terrain with steep fjords. At these locations both turbulence, shear and extreme winds are heavily influenced by the terrain in ways difficult to predict. Furthermore, some of the novel bridge designs are susceptible to turbulence frequencies not previously studied for bridge aerodynamics. The task will make scanning lidars capable of measuring all relevant load-generating wind situations and assess their impact on the long-span bridges. 

The future of wind energy in Europe may well lie in huge offshore farms. Lidars can measure both wind direction and turbulence upstream of the individual wind turbines and potentially control the turbine to generate more energy and reduce loads, for example, by steering its downstream wake. The task will address lidar data analysis, lidar deployment strategies and assess the reduced loads and increased energy production through scaled wind tunnel experiments, full-scale data and modelling

Airport turbulence and shear warning. Landing aircraft face risks from turbulence generated by two sources: The surrounding terrain and meteorology and the wake from the previously landed aircraft. The task will conduct a scanning lidar field campaign to characterize the turbulence along the track of a landing aircraft and devise a model to predict and warn against adverse landing conditions.