Wind energy will play an important role in the future production of electricity. In light of this development the DLR director for Energy and Transport, Prof. U. Wagner, decided to support projects dedicated to a transfer of aircraft related know-how to wind energy with DLR internal funding.
As a first DLR internal project, the project MERWind “Multidisciplinary Design principles for Rotors of Windturbines” was initiated. Within “MERWind” a numerical process chain with high-fidelity-methods for the multidisciplinary simulation of wind turbines will be developed. The process chain will include methods for aerodynamics, aeroacoustics, structural mechanics and aeroelastics. Aspects related to the manufacturing of the rotor blades will also be considered. MERWind is led by DLR-AS (Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology) with contribution from AE (Institute for Aeroelasticity), AT (Institute of Propulsion Technology) and FA (Institute of Composite Structures and Adaptive Systems).
The research activities are focused on the rotor of the wind turbine. By altering various design parameters of the rotor the effect on the performance of the wind turbine will be evaluated.
DLR-AS will contribute with aerodynamic simulations employing the TAU code (AS-Helicopters-Braunschweig) and aeroacoustic simulations using the CAA-method PIANO (AS-Technical Acoustics).
The duration of the project is from Jan. 2012 to Dec. 2014.