The BRITE seminar series continues on Thursday 12th April, 13:00 - 14:00 in the Vice-Chancellor's room, up the stairs from the Pugsley lecture theatre, Queen's Building. Our speaker will be Neil Buckney from the Advanced Composites Centre for Innovation and Science (ACCIS). He will outline his work in association with Vestas, the world's leading wind turbine manufacturer.

Bristol technologies for the environment, or BRITE, is part of the Cabot Institute at the University of Bristol. BRITE brings together researchers in the area of environmental or sustainability technologies. Our seminars focus on opportunities for future collaboration and are aimed at a wide audience, avoiding too much technical detail associated with one specific discipline.

Abstract:

Neil Buckney: "Structural Efficiency of Wind Turbine Blades"

There is a current trend towards larger wind turbines because, as their rated power increases, the cost per kilowatt generated decreases. With wind turbines now exceeding rotor diameters of 160 metres, this poses many engineering challenges. The overall aim of the work which will be presented is to reduce the cost of wind energy by improving the structural efficiency of wind turbine blades. Alternative blade designs are found using topology optimisation, which finds the best structural layout. The resulting concepts are then evaluated using shape factors which measure the efficiency of material use.

BRITE periodically distributes information on relevant funding opportunities to our internal mailing lists. These opportunities are aimed at postgraduates and researchers at all levels. If you wish to added to these lists, please contact me at Neeraj.Oak@bristol.ac.uk.