Research Projects

The project will focus on the development of wind turbine blades, and associated wind farm designs optimized specifically based on the wind energy potential related to the farmlands in the state of Punjab (with a plan to extend the process to other states). We start with the survey of working wind farms that have been successfully installed in the farmlands of the USA, like Grande Prairie wind farm, Meridian Way Wind Farm, etc. and, estimate the wind energy potential mapped with the locations of existing farmlands spread over Punjab. The wind turbine blade designs will then be optimized based on the estimated potential using a multi-objective continuous genetic algorithm. Calculation of lift, drag, and wake statistics will be performed using an open-source computation software QBlade, which is specifically designed for wind turbine aerodynamic simulations. The simulation will be supported with experimental measurements of forces and velocity statistics on a 3D-printed blade in a wind tunnel. The optimized wind turbine will then be put into the current state-of-the-art wind farm simulation and an ant colony optimization/ Artificial bee colony algorithm will be used for structure evolution. Energy output from an optimized wind turbine and wind farm organization will be estimated and financial calculations will be performed to check the feasibility/earning potential for farmers, energy firms, and governments towards a practical installation. Finally, the optimized energy production will be compared to energy consumption related to irrigation. A solution for substituting traditional irrigation methods with wind turbines will be developed.