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Divya Tyagi, who earned the prestigious Anthony E. Wolk Award for her thesis on this topic, sees her work as a step towards improving wind energy production and sustainability
Divya Tyagi is currently pursuing a master’s degree in aerospace engineering at. Pennsylvania State University. (Image via psu.ed)
Divya Tyagi, an Indian-origin student at Pennsylvania State University, has solved a century-old mathematics problem, paving the way to revolutionise wind turbine design and providing new insights into wind energy production that could enhance efficiency and reduce costs.
Tyagi, currently pursuing a master’s degree in aerospace engineering, refined a mathematical model that had puzzled experts for over 100 years. By simplifying and enhancing the model, she made it more accessible and practical for modern applications, particularly in aerodynamics and wind energy, according to Penn State University’s official website.
The problem originally posed by British aerodynamicist Hermann Glauert focused on determining the optimal performance of wind turbines. However, Glauert’s work only considered the maximum power that a turbine could generate, without accounting for additional factors such as the forces acting on the rotor or the bending of turbine blades under wind pressure.
Tyagi’s work, which was published in Wind Energy Science, goes beyond Glauert’s original model. She created an addendum that identifies the ideal flow conditions for wind turbines, maximising their power output.
“I created an addendum to Glauert’s problem which determines the optimal aerodynamic performance of a wind turbine by solving for the ideal flow conditions for a turbine in order to maximize its power output,” Tyagi told the university’s publication.
Her adviser, Sven Schmitz, a professor at Penn State’s Department of Aerospace Engineering, said that Tyagi’s solution is based on the calculus of variations, a method for solving optimisation problems.
“The real impact will be on the next generation of wind turbines using the new knowledge that has been unveiled,” Schmitz noted. “As for Divya’s elegant solution, I think it will find its way into the classrooms, across the country and around the world.”
Tyagi, who earned the prestigious Anthony E. Wolk Award for her thesis on this topic, sees her work as a step towards improving wind energy production and sustainability. “Improving the power coefficient of a large wind turbine by just 1% has significant impacts on the energy production of a turbine… potentially powering an entire neighborhood,” she added.