AptWind: Atmospheric Physics and Turbulence for Wind Energy Doctoral Network

At a glance

• To achieve the EU targets for the expansion of wind energy, it will be necessary to develop new, large wind turbines. Atmospheric flow phenomena have not yet been sufficiently investigated in these dimensions.
• In the EU joint project AptWind, the partners are creating a Europe-wide academic network from industry and research, which will train young scientists on the basis of these open questions, support them with doctoral scholarships, and ensure optimal knowledge transfer to the industry at the same time.
• Among other things, Fraunhofer IWES will be responsible for the “Small-scale flow & turbulence” focus area.

The challenge

The European Union is pursuing ambitious climate targets: CO₂ emissions should be reduced by 55% compared with 1990 by 2030, and the EU aims to be climate-neutral by 2050. For this to succeed, power generation using renewable energies must be increased massively. A 40% share should be reached by 2030. This goes hand in hand with massive expansion of wind energy usage. 30,000 MW must be added annually by 2030, and, at the same time, turbine technology must be further developed, and the industry must launch larger, more powerful wind turbines on the market. This will result in turbine sizes extending into less well researched ranges of atmospheric flow behavior.

The solution

This is where the European joint project AptWind comes in. The goal is to train a new academic generation which has a deep understanding of the interactions of atmospheric flow physics and turbulence while simultaneously being in a position to develop innovative industrial applications and products from the scientific findings. To this end, doctoral candidates are being supported with scholarships. AptWind is pursuing specific scientific questions: four key research questions address, among other things, the consequences of relevant flow events on the rotors of wind turbines with a capacity of more than 15 MW and the improvement of numerical simulations.

In this combination of training and substantive research, AptWind comprises six work packages. Fraunhofer IWES is responsible for work package 3 “Small-scale flow & turbulence”. The focus here is on the networking of young scientists and industry, who together advance research into small-scale flows and turbulence. In addition, Fraunhofer IWES is also taking on tasks such as training in simulation methods for the design of wind turbines.

The added value

AptWind will ensure that a new generation of specialized scientists are not only trained well in the field of atmospheric flow physics, which is key to understanding wind energy, but also well networked among themselves and with the industry. As a result, new scientific findings will quickly find application in industry. Consequently, AptWind will contribute to making the results of further EU research projects like FLOW, AIRE, and Meridional usable for the industry. 

To the project website: https://www.aptwind.eu/