Los Alamos National Laboratories Engineering Summer School.
Each summer, from 2018 to 2023, Professor Nikolaos Dervilis has given an invited lecture to an audience, primarily of undergraduate students, at this prestigious summer/training school; one of the best Engineering schools in the USA with top undergraduate students across US academia.
‘Pint of Science’ Festival, University of Sheffield.
As part of the national, annual ‘Pint of Science’ festival our project manager, Keith Dean, gave a presentation to an audience of around fifty members of the public, highlighting the successes of the project and explaining the numerous outcomes and impacts.
Invited Talk, February 2023, at Columbia University, New York, USA.
Professor Nikolaos Dervilis gave a presentation on Population-based Structural Health Monitoring for Offshore Wind.
Keynote Speech at the ‘Noise and Vibration; Emerging Methods’ Conference, 10-12 January 2023, Auckland, New Zealand.
Professor Nikolaos Dervilis gave a presentation on Population-based Structural Health Monitoring for Offshore Wind.
Video and Animated Reports.
As the project came to its conclusion we created a video recording that explained the scope of the project, the research that was undertaken and the key outcomes from all four work packages. In addition we produced a short animated film to explain the nature of the research in non-technical language. Finally, we created a very short (60-second) summary video that explained the successes of the collaboration and the crucial outputs that it spawned.
All three universities have put links to the three films on their departmental web sites and they have also been shared with media contacts as part of our press release strategies. They can be viewed here, from the University of Sheffield pages.
2nd UK India Offshore Wind Summit, Chennai, 10th March 2023.
Professor James Gilbert from the University of Hull attended this event and took part in a skills panel session.
5th Annual Meeting, The Science Museum, 24 March 2023.
Our 5th and final project Annual Meeting was held on 24th March 2023 at The Science Museum in London. As usual we heard from our four Work Package Leaders, giving a full progress report on their research and highlighting the many positive outcomes and impacts that had been achieved. After lunch, the Advisory Board and Management Board members held a brief discussion session to identify possible future activities and continued collaboration between the partners, and to reflect on the success of the partnership.
The event, and the project, were formally concluded by our Advisory Board Chair, Professor Peter Tavner, who expressed thanks to everyone who had worked so hard and with such great commitment over the five and a half years of the project resulting in an incredibly impactful and successful collaboration. He was then thanked for his input and guidance over the course of the project by the two Principal Investigators and given gifts of appreciation.
Project Exposition to Policy Makers and Stakeholders, Royal Academy of Engineering, 23rd March 2023.
One of the key aims of the project has always been to promote and disseminate the outputs and successes that we have achieved but it was also very important to stress the need for further investment in research in this field to continue so that even more advancements and improvements can be created to bring down the cost of offshore wind energy even further.
To facilitate this we arranged a prestigious event, held at the Royal Academy of Engineering, and invited a wide variety of people representing policy makers, research funders, industries and other key stakeholders. After a welcome and introduction from our industrial Principal Investigator, Dr Arwyn Thomas of Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, we heard from Professor Peter Tavner, our Advisory Board Chair, and from Andrew Elmes (SGRE) on their observations around the current offshore wind energy landscape and future priorities. Our four Work Package Leaders gave presentations highlighting the successes and outcomes of the research we have undertaken which were followed by a ‘Show and Tell’ exhibition session where some of our PhD Students and Post-doctoral Research Associates demonstrated and explained some of the innovations in more detail.
Finally, alongside a drinks reception, the event was wrapped up by Benj Sykes (Ørsted) and Clark MacFarlane (SGRE) giving an executive summary on the future of offshore wind from their perspectives.
University Press Releases, and media responses and reactions.
In March 2023, immediately preceding our prestigious Exposition Event at The Royal Academy of Engineering, the three Universities released press statements which attracted a lot of attention from a wide range of organisations; regional and national.
You can view the statements here:
University of Sheffield Press Release
Durham University Press Release
University of Hull Press Release.
Amongst the regional TV and radio organisations which were notified were:
BBC Look North (Yorkshire), BBC Look North (North East and Cumbria), ITV ‘Calendar’ News, ITV Tyne Tees, BBC Radio Humberside, BBC Radio Newcastle, BBC Radio Tees, Metro Radio, TFM Radio and Smooth Radio.
In the press, we shared our story with:
The Guardian, The Yorkshire Post, The Sheffield Star, The Hull Daily Mail, The Northern Echo, The Evening Chronicle, The Shields Gazette, The Sunderland Echo.
A number of Engineering publications have run articles about the project including:
The Engineer, Energy Live News, Research Features, OffshoreWind biz, Clean Technica, Air Quality News, Mirage News, Marketing Humber and AZO Clean Tech.
In addition we ran articles on our own, outward-facing web pages and central newslinks at Sheffield, at Hull and at Durham.
We are also sharing the story of the project with our student communities and one of one PhD students at Durham created a blog to share his experiences of working on a collaborative research project alongside industrial partners.
Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission Conference, Leeds, 15 November 2022.
Professor James Gilbert represented the project at this important conference which was hosted by BBC journalist and climate correspondent Paul Hudson. At a session entitled ‘Yorkshire’s Green Energy Future’, Jim spoke about his roles within AURA and the Prosperity Partnership project and, specifically, about the benefits from the very successful collaborative approach taken by all the partners.
Durham University ‘Celebrate Science’ event, 25-27 October 2022.
Professor Simon Hogg, our principal academic lead from the Durham University, and Aidan Duffy (not pictured), one of our PhD students there, took part in this 3-day community festival during the half-term school holidays to share their passion for science and engineering with 7-11 years olds and their families. The information, equipment and samples on their stall explained about the power of wind and demonstrated a wind turbine in action.
Over 6,000 visitors attended the event and a feature was included on BBC Look North (North East and Cumbria) Evening News on 27th October.
Visit to the Facilities of the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult, Blyth, 18 October 2022.
We are grateful to the staff at OREC for allowing us to visit their facilities in Blyth. Project members from the Prosperity Partnership were joined by colleagues working on the Powertrain Research Hub programme that is jointly-funded by OREC. Our group of over 20 included post-doctoral RAs, PhD students, academic and industrial supervisors, and other members of our Management Board.
Supergen Autumn Assembly, University of Oxford, 29 September 2022.
A number of our project members attended this event, held at St Catherine’s College, Oxford. Professor James Gilbert, our principal academic lead from the University of Hull, is a co-director of Supergen. He, and all the other co-directors, presented an overview of core research in the Supergen ORE hub. He was a panel member on a discussion entitled “How do we engage/bring the public along with the transition to net zero and grow and sustain the workforce needed, ensuring that equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) is a core element, to 2030 and beyond?”
In a later session: “How do we accelerate learning and sharing of best practice in ORE through international collaboration and what is the role of the Supergen ORE Hub in providing research leadership for ORE to achieve targets for 2030, 2050 and beyond?” there were contributions from Paul McKeever – Head of Electrical Research at the ORE Catapult and a member of our Advisory Board, and from Isabella Panovic – Senior Portfolio Manager, Energy & Decarbonisation at EPSRC and our EPSRC project officer.
Electrical Machines and Drives Group Symposium, Sheffield, 15 September 2022.
Professor Zi-Qiang Zhu gave a keynote speech to the group as part of a 1-day symposium which also included a research poster competition for five categories, and an update on IEEE student branch activities. Professor Geraint Jewell, Director of the Future Electrical Machine Manufacturing Hub, gave the second keynote speech.
In The Post-Doctoral Researcher category, the prize for best poster was won by Ximeng Wu from the Prosperity Partnership project. His entry was entitled “Comparative Study of Rotor Position Estimation Techniques.”
Future Electrical Machine Manufacturing Hub Annual Conference, Factory 2020 Sheffield, 13 September 2022.
Members of the project attended the conference to hear about progress updates and the future planning objectives of the project from the Hub Director, Professor Geraint Jewell, and some of the hub’s partners. The event also included a tour of the facilities at the Factory 2020 site.
Visit to Siemens Gamesa Turbine Blade Factory, Hull, 11 July 2022.
We had the great pleasure of visiting Siemens Gamesa’s blade factory in Hull to see and understand more about the manufacturing process. Our group included post-doctoral RA.s, PhD students, members of the Management Board, academic supervisors and our Advisory Board chair, Peter Tavner. We are grateful to the SGRE team in Hull for their time and hospitality.
Global Offshore Wind, Manchester, 22 June 2022.
Members of our project team presented two sessions at this event in the Partnership Hub.
“How can academia support the growth of the offshore wind industry?”
David Bould (Ørsted), together with Andrew Elmes (SGRE), Louise Smith (Aura) and Agota Mockute (University of Hull).
“Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy + University of Hull: A partnership story.”
Jim Gilbert (University of Hull) and Chris Briggs (SGRE).
IFAC Safeprocess 2022, Paphos, Cyprus, 8-10 June 2022.
Professor Ron Patton from the University of Hull and Yanhua Liu, who worked as a PDRA on the project, attended this event.
In a session entitled ‘Advanced Control, Fault Diagnosis and Fault Tolerant Control for Renewable Energy Conversion Systems’ Ron and Yanhua presented an invited paper on “Monte Carlo Analysis of Bayesian Optimization-based Pitch Controller with Pitch Fault Compensation for Offshore Wind Turbine.”
They also presented a paper, “Pitch and Rotor System Level Fault Monitoring and Fault Tolerant Load Mitigation” at a workshop session on ‘Recent Advances, Challenges and Solutions in Wind Turbine Advanced Control, Fault Diagnosis and Fault Tolerant Control’.
‘Pint of Science Festival’ Going Offshore: The Future of UK Energy, Hull, 9 May 2022.
On 5th May Professor Jim Gilbert gave a presentation and led a discussion as part of the ‘Pint of Science’ Festival. His session was entitled “The role of offshore wind in meeting net zero targets” and is summarised as:
Offshore wind has been widely promoted as a key technology for the UK to meet a large proportion of its energy needs and to address net zero targets but there are significant challenges still to overcome if this is to be achieved. These include issues around the available wind resource and what happens when the wind does not blow, the environmental impacts of large numbers of marine structures and the use of scarce resources in turbines and associated equipment.
Knowledge Exchange Presentation to SGRE, Brande, Denmark, 27 April 2022.
On 27th April Professor Z-Q Zhu and Dr Petrica Taras visited the SGRE team in Brande, Denmark. The meeting’s goal was for Petrica to present his work and receive feedback at an important point in the research, and in addition to the regular progress update reports. This Knowledge Exchange event was presented to members of the thermal team, including some joining online from India, as well as other SGRE colleagues.
Title: “Thermal and Cooling Aspects of Large Wind Power PM Generators.”
4th Annual Meeting, Aalborg, Denmark, 25-27 April 2022.
The project held its 4th Annual Meeting from 25th to 27th April 2022 in Aalborg, Denmark with over 30 project members in attendance. The arrangements were made to also coincide with visits to the Ørsterild onshore test centre, managed by the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and to the Department of Energy Technology at Aalborg University.
The meeting began with presentations from our industrial partners, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy (SGRE) and Ørsted, who reported on the successes and research relevance of the work being undertaken, specifically in response to a request from the project Advisory Board for clarification on this. We then heard from the four Work Package leaders on the progress made and the issues that had arisen over the past twelve months. After separate meetings of the Advisory and Management Boards, we reconvened for a feedback session at which the Advisory Board praised the continued, excellent research and collaboration that was clearly evident across the full scope of the partnership. Their recommendations for the final twelve months of the project focused on;
- finding more opportunities to disseminate the success stories
- creating a narrative to describe what the key next areas of research in the sector should be, and
- ensuring that the remaining deliverables for the project are met.
The final part of the formal meeting was a series of presentations from some of the post-doctoral researchers and PhD students currently working on the project. Three groups had been formed, each including a cross-section of members from the three universities and the four work packages. The challenge, which had been set by our industrial partners in order to give them an insight into possible future research in the sector, was as follows:
By considering all the research from the Prosperity Partnership project, and how that might contribute to future industrial development in the offshore wind sector, what do you see as the next areas of research that need to be developed to best suit the requirements of our industrial partners.
Also to be explored is how we could combine research areas to create new partnerships for the future of offshore wind.
Visit to the Ørsterild Onshore Test Centre, Denmark, 26th April 2022.
On Tuesday 26th April, a group of 28 project members made the 90-minute journey from Aalborg to the Ørsterild onshore test centre on the north coast. We were given a presentation from Allan Vesth of DTU explaining the history of the site and on how it operates to assist with turbine technology development. Three of the nine test sites are currently rented by SGRE so Esben Orlowitz and Claus Schroeder told us how SGRE use the facilities to test and develop their turbine equipment. After a tour of the site from a DTU guide, we were allowed some free time to walk around and explore for ourselves.
Visit to Department of Energy Technology at Aalborg University, Denmark, 27th April 2022.
On Wednesday 27th April, a group of academic staff, research staff and PhD students from the University of Sheffield, along with Peter Tavner the chair of our Advisory Board, visited the Department of Energy Technology at Aalborg University. Hosted by Professor Frede Blaabjerg, we received a presentation on the structure of the department and its areas of research excellence and activities, particularly in power electronic systems, before embarking on a tour of their extensive and impressive suite of modern research laboratories.
Work Package 3.3 Progress Update Presentation. 25 February 2022.
On 25th February 2022 Professor Ron Patton from the University of Hull gave a presentation on the work he has been leading in work package 3.3 to an audience that included members of the project Advisory Board, Management Board, academic colleagues, PhD students, post-doctoral researchers and industrial partners. Together with post-doctoral research associate Yanhua Liu, Prof Patton has been undertaking research into ‘Pitch and Rotor System Level Fault Monitoring’ and his presentation gave an update on progress as well as an indication as to how the work underpins, complements and might influence the work in other areas of the project.
Oral presentation to SPIE Photonics Europe.
In February, Tom Allsop, one of our post-doctoral research associates at the University of Hull gave a verbal presentation entitled,
“Fibre Bragg Gratings: Monitoring of infusion process in liquid composite moulding manufacturing.”
T. Allsop, M. W. Tahir, K. Bhavsar, L. Zhang, D. J. Webb, J. M. Gilbert.
SPIE Photonics Europe, Optical Sensing and Detection VII, paper 12139-53,
Research Dissemination Events, held virtually, 28 July 2021 and 9 February 2022.
We held two joint promotion and dissemination events to showcase the work being carried out at the University of Sheffield and that being done on an associated programme of projects with the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult. The first focused on the research in work package 1 in the Electrical Machines and Drives Group, and the second in work package 2 in the Dynamics Research Group.
Further details can be found on the ‘LATEST NEWS’ page.
Supergen ORE Hub 4th Annual Assembly. 18-20 January 2022.
The event was held virtually and attracted many, many delegates. Some of our project team were panel members for presentations and parallel sessions.
Paul McKeever, Head of Strategic Research at ORE Catapult and the Chair of the Supergen ORE Hub Industrial Advisory Board and a member of our project Advisory Board, took part in a discussion entitled “Research and innovation priorities; opportunities for collaboration between industry and academia“.
Professor James Gilbert, Co-director of the Supergen ORE hub and our lead academic on Work Package 4, was a panel member on “Sensoring, control and electro-magnetics” and “EDI in offshore renewable energy academia and industry – what has been effective so far?”
Dave Bould, Lead R & D Specialist for Ørsted and a member of our project Management Board, was also a panel member whilst other colleagues from the team also attended sessions over the three days.
Global Offshore Wind Conference, London, 29 and 30 September 2021.
A number of our project members attended the conference in person, or virtually. Benj Sykes, Vice-President UK Offshore, Ørsted, and a member of our project Advisory Board, took part in two discussion sessions:
“Our climate and biodiversity crisis” and “Imagining Britain’s seas in 2050.”
Professor James Gilbert attended representing the Humber cluster.
Presentations to Electrobras, 16 and 23 September 2021.
Professor James Gilbert gave two presentations on offshore wind energy to twenty engineers from the Brazilian company who are seeking to start developing their offshore wind capabilities. The events were facilitated by the Department of Trade and the Brazilian Embassy.
iMech Wind Turbine User Group Conference, held virtually, 19-20 May 2021.
The inaugural meeting of the group offered attendees two days of technical content and knowledge-sharing to support all engineers involved with wind turbine assets.
Professor James Gilbert, Work Package 4 Leader on the Prosperity Partnership project, gave a talk entitled “Monitoring and modelling of wind turbine blade manufacture” to an audience of original equipment manufacturers, service providers and end users of wind turbines.
The event provided a chance to hear about the latest technologies available as well as to learn from case studies that addressed the challenges facing the delivery of wind turbine O&M services and opportunities for cost reduction and health and safety improvements.
UK Association of Computational Mechanics Conference, Loughborough University, 14-16 April 2021.
Colleagues working on Work Package 4 (G. Pretti, W. M. Coombs, and C.E. Augarde) gave a presentation entitled “A Comparison of Implicit Time Discretisation Techniques.”
Engineering Mechanics Institute Conference, held virtually, 22-24 March 2021.
Colleagues working on Work Package 4 gave a presentation entitled “Displacement Controlled Arc-Length Solution Scheme.”
Research Presentation Videos.
For the project’s 3rd Annual Meeting at the end of February 2021, all the PhD students and Post-Doctoral Research Associates were asked to produce 5 minute video presentations to describe progress with their work. We have made a selection of them available to view and they can be found in the ‘News’ section as part of the item about the Annual Meeting.
Supergen ORE Hub Annual Assembly, 18-22 January 2021.
Over 400 delegates (four times the usual attendance) attended sessions of this virtual conference over the course of a week. Both of the industrial partners on our project, Ørsted and Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, are represented on the Advisory Board of this hub which is chaired by Paul McKeever (Head of Electrical Research at the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult); a member of our own Advisory Board.
Prof James Gilbert, Work Package 4 Leader, University of Hull, chaired two sessions:
“Challenges and Drivers to Improve Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Offshore Renewable Energy Research.”
“Tackling the Challenges – Resource and Environment Characterisation & Survivability, Reliability and Design.”
Dr Chizhi Zhang, Post-Doctoral Research Associate at the University of Hull, presented a research poster entitled “Structural Performance and Fatigue Damage Assessment for Wind Turbine Blades based on the FSI Model.”
“The Future of Renewable Energy” webinar, 28th January 2021.
Prof James Gilbert, Work Package 4 Leader, University of Hull, presented this webinar to the Yorkshire and Humber Institute of Technology which consists of seven regional colleges. Industry collaborators and the general public also attended.
RenewableUK Global Offshore Wind Conference, 28-30 October 2020.
Over 2,500 delegates attended this virtual conference including a number of our project team.
Benj Sykes, Vice President UK Offshore for Ørsted, and a member of our Advisory Board chaired a session on “Making ambition a reality: how are we overcoming barriers to deliver offshore wind at net zero scale?”
Prof James Gilbert, Work Package 4 Leader, University of Hull, was a panel member for a session on “Increasing inclusivity in offshore wind: gender and ethnicity.”
Knowledge sharing seminar, 1 October 2020.
Dr Richard Williams presented a progress update on project 3.1 to an internal knowledge sharing seminar with around 80 attendees including colleagues from Ørsted and other project managers. It is anticipated that this event will repeated in future years.
Energi Coast Innovation Group launch event, 4th September 2020.
Energi Coast is the Cluster in Offshore Wind for the North-East of England. On 4th September 2020 it held a launch event for The Energi Coast Innovation Group which is led by Professor Simon Hogg and is made up of key representatives from the offshore wind sector, regional universities, Local Enterprise Partnerships and industry. It aims to develop long-term solutions to meet the requirements for new technology in offshore wind in areas such as operations and maintenance and energy storage.
As part of the launch event a number of innovation case studies were presented by means of posters and short video guides including two contributions from Durham University students working on our Prosperity Partnership project:
‘Determining the condition of lubricated components through monitoring of oil condition’ (Project 3.1) and
‘Quantifying the effects of leading-edge erosion on wind turbine blades’ (Project 2.4).
Workshop on Modelling and Sensing, Aalborg, 21 September 2020.
Project team members held a workshop with ten SGRE colleagues from the casting team in Aalborg to exchange details of current research progress and future plans and to provide background to the new CDT PhD project on casting process simulation. This has led to identifying additional routes to collaborate on monitoring of defects in blades, linking in to the Reliablade project in which SGRE are a partner.
ICEM Conference, Gothenburg, Sweden, 23-26 August 2020.
One research paper was presented:
“Influence of air gap in transverse flux permanent magnet machines for wind power applications.” (Kumar R, Zhu Z-Q, Duke A, Thomas A, Clark R).
IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), Detroit, Michigan, USA, 11-15 October 2020.
Two papers were presented:
“Improved Sensorless Control Method for Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines Considering Resistance Asymmetry and Temperature Variation“ (Liu T, Zhu Z-Q, Wu Z Y, Stone D, Foster M) and
“Frequency-domain based windings voltage distribution modelling for converter-fed electrical machines.” (Wei Y, Griffo A, Gonzalez F, Bhide R, Samanta S, Clark R, Thomas A, Zhu Z-Q).
Continuing Interaction and Reporting with our Industry Partners.
The travel restrictions that we have all faced as a consequence of national and regional lockdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic have meant that we have had to maintain contact between project partners via web links and on-line meetings. We have been flexible and revised our normal procedures to make sure that the interaction and collaboration has continued so that the research progress is monitored and health-checked by our industrial partners to ensure it is still relevant and heading in the right direction. Project staff on all four Work Packages have successfully continued with some form of reporting and feedback process and it is pleasing to report that the changes have not have any significant impact on the research being carried out. As an example, the Electrical Machines and Drives Group at the University of Sheffield has been submitting it’s 6-monthly progress reports electronically to SGRE engineers for comments and feedback in place of the regular in-person presentations that we had arranged previously in Sheffield.
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy Technical Workshop (EMD), 12-13 December 2019.
This was our 5th 6-monthly technical event for the students and Research Associates within EMD to present their work to our industrial sponsors. Colleagues from SGRE commented that the quality of the presentations and the content continues to improve at each event. The focus of the presentations is now centred on the detailed research being undertaken and an assessment of how well this aligns with SGRE’s requirements. The feedback and advice received is much appreciated and it ensures that the project remains on track to meet its original outcomes.
Research Progress and Support Visit, Brande, Denmark, 25-29 November 2019.
During a visit to the SGRE offices in Brande, Denmark, from 25th to 29th November 2019, Weijiang Lin and Chandula Wickramarachchi had the opportunity to meet with the staff from Siemens Gamesa who provide support to their research. The discussions were extremely useful for both sides in reaching an agreement on the research directions of the projects, and gaining a clear understanding of what resources are available and best suitable. Support for technical issues was immediately available as they were encountered. It was encouraging to hear that the staff in Brande had a great interest in the potential in our projects and a strong willingness to provide whatever resources were needed.
Progress Meeting and Site Visit, Copenhagen, 25-28 November 2019.
From 25th-28th November 2019, Jack Barker travelled to Ørsted offices in Copenhagen with his supervisor, Toby Breckon, for the formal project kick-off meeting for Work Package 2.1 and to agree more details of Ørsted’s requirements for in-situ blade inspection. They discussed an outline of future testing and the provision of blade samples to Durham University and set up monthly progress teleconferences. On 26th they visited the test site at Avendore.
Wind Europe Conference, Copenhagen, 27 November 2019.
Colleagues from AURA attended and staffed a stand at the Wind Europe Conference. One of our PhD students, Jack Barker, also attended.
Supergen ORE Hub Annual Assembly, 6 November 2019.
A number of our project team (Jim Gilbert, Keith Worden, Guang-Jin Li, Chris Briggs, Christopher Crabtree, Charles Augarde, Yanhua Liu and Keith Dean) attended the 2019 Supergen Annual Assembly, held at the University of Strathclyde. Two members of our Advisory Board (Bill Leithead and Paul McKeever) also too part. We heard from the Supergen ORE Hub on their core work packages and research updates and from five industry partners including The Crown Estate and Wave Energy Scotland. Presentations were given by the leaders of Flexible Fund projects which had been supported and were under way.
JMAG European User Conference and Workshop, 17-19 October 2019, Strasbourg, France.
Rajesh Kumar presented on “3D design of transverse flux machine” and Prof Zhu gave a presentation as part of the Workshop on day 2 entitled “Electrical Machine Technologies, Topologies and Applications”.
https://events.powersys-solutions.com/jmag-europe-user-conference-2019/
IEEE-Energy Conversion Congress and Expo, Baltimore, USA, 29 September – 3 October 2019.
Two papers were presented at the event attended by Sumeet Thakur, Jin Xu, Milijana Odavic and Prof Zhu.
“Interactions of capacitor voltage ripple with the circulating current and output current controllers in low-capacitance modular multilevel converters” and
“An adaptive harmonic compensation strategy for dual three phase permanent magnet synchronous machines considering different angle displacements”.
Invited Talk, Dr Ron Patton, October 2019.
Dr Patton and Dr Yanhua Liu gave an invited talk, entitled “Smart Wind Turbine Fault Tolerance and Load Balancing” to an AURA Energy Breakfast meeting in October 2019.
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy Technical Review Meeting (DRG), Brande, Denmark
September 2019.
Project members from the Dynamics Research Group in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sheffield continued their series of technical review meetings by returning to Brande in September. They were able to follow up on the advice and feedback from their visit in June and receive further guidance on how the research should progress over the coming months.
European Academy of Wind Energy.
EAWE is an international community that promotes and supports the development of wind energy science to exploit wind energy to its full potential for the benefit of the world. The University of Hull has been admitted to the Academy alongside Durham University and over 40 other leading universities and research institutes across Europe.
Invited Talk, Dr Nikos Dervilis, July 2019.
Dr Dervilis gave an invited talk in ‘Complexity in Engineering Systems’ at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochshule in Zurich, Switzerland, in July 2019.
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy Technical Review Meeting (DRG), Brande, Denmark
June 2019.
Members of academic staff, Post-Doctoral Research Associates and PhD students from the Dynamics Research Group in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sheffield visited Brande for technical review meetings in June. It was a great opportunity for our researchers to get informative and expert feedback from one of our key industrial partners. The trip also included relevant patent training for the researchers and a visit to production facilities. Further review meetings will be held throughout the course of the project.
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy Technical Workshop (EMD)
25-26 June 2019.
In June we arranged our 4th 6-monthly technical presentations where all the Post-Doctoral Researchers and PhD students in the EMD Group report on the progress of their research to Siemens Gamesa engineers. The presentations begin with an explanation on actions arising from the feedback and advice received at the previous review, they go on to describe the progress since then and end with a plan of action for the next six months.
Global Offshore Wind Conference, London, June 2019.
Colleagues from AURA attended, and staffed, a stand at the Global Offshore Wind Conference.
3-Day Industry Awareness Event: Discussion and Seminar Sessions, Site Visits to Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy facilities in Hull, and to Ørsted Operations and Maintenance Control Centre in Grimsby
22-24 May 2019.
We staged a three-day Industry Awareness Event for all the Post-Doctoral Research Associates and PhD students, from all three institutions, in May, hosted by the University of Hull. Day 1 consisted of a series of seminars and presentations on topics such as: The need for offshore wind energy, The development process for an Offshore Wind Farm, A typical offshore wind farm, the operation of an offshore wind turbine, Offshore wind as part of the energy system, and the Industry Perspectives and Challenges
Day 2 included visits to the Siemens Gamesa blade factory and their training centre in Hull and on Day 3 the group visited the Ørsted Operations and Maintenance Control Centre in Grimsby.
The event was an overwhelming success and proved very educational and interesting for the whole group. In addition, it was a great opportunity for the researchers and students to find out more about the work being done at the other institutions and to meet their project colleagues.
Invited Talk, Dr Nikos Dervilis, May 2019.
Dr Dervilis gave an invited talk on ‘Robust Novelty Detection’ at the Institut Universitaire de Technologie at the University of Angers, France, in May 2019.
Presentation, Discussion Session and Site Visit, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Brande, Denmark
13-14 May 2019.
Professor Zhu, and SGRE colleagues from Sheffield made a trip to Brande for a 2-day event in May. The schedule included a presentation, and follow-up discussion, with SGRE engineers and senior managers on the technical challenges and future research issues for wind turbine generators. There was also time to visit the SGRE production line and take a trip to the top of an onshore 6MW direct drive permanent magnet turbine.
Site Visit to Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy Facilities, Aalborg, Denmark Workshop (EMD)
28 April to 3 May 2019.
At the end of April two of our research staff at the University of Hull were invited to visit Siemens Gamesa facilities in Aalborg, Denmark. Waseem Tahir and Thomas Allsop wanted to find out more about the manufacturing process of wind turbine blades and to reaffirm that their research, on Work Package 4.2, was continuing in line with the requirements of our industry partner. At the same time it was possible to better understand the SGRE objectives with regards to structural heath monitoring and performance during the wind turbines operation offshore, along with the optimisation of the manufacturing process of the blades.
During their stay they were shown around the factory to learnt more about the manufacturing process of the wind turbine blades and, in particular, to understand the process of the infusion of resin within the reinforcements in the mould and issues arising from it. The experience has given them an opportunity to propose alternative methods of manufacture and monitoring of the various stages, and to then study the flow of the resin during the process. It is hoped that this could lead to a significant reduction in the amount of repair and maintenance of the blades. Other issues around the temperature control of the mould-filling process are also being considered now that the problems are better understood. Siemens Gamesa has agreed to supply materials and samples to allow for further investigation and testing.
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy Technical Workshop (EMD)
16-17 January 2019.
Our 3rd 6-monthly Technical Workshop, over 2 days, allowed all the PhD students and PDRAs working in the EMD Research Group at the University of Sheffield the opportunity to present their research to SGRE Engineers from Brande, Keele and Sheffield. The constructive feedback and advice we received ensures that the work continues to be fully aligned with industry priorities.
Invited presentation to the Royal Academy of Engineering Research Forum
20 November 2018.
Professor Zhu gave an invited poster presentation entitled “High efficiency and power density wind power generator systems with increased reliability and lower cost” at Royal Academy of Engineering Research Forum, 20 November 2018, London. There were >100 participants, including Fellows of Royal Academy of Engineering, Research Chairs, Research Fellows. It sparked many questions and discussion afterwards, followed by a research seminar on 6 December 2018 at the University of Sheffield on “Fully superconducting machines for future electric aircraft” given by Dr Min Zhang, RAE Research Fellow, from Strathclyde University, as arranged by Professor Steve Williamson, Fellow of Royal Academy of Engineering. Future co-operation on superconducting machines for wind power application between Sheffield and Strathclyde was discussed.
SUPERGEN Wind General Assembly, Dundee
November 2018.
Yanhua Liu provided a poster (Supervisors R. J. Patton and J. M. Gilbert) “Wind Turbine Structural Load Reduction with Pitch Sensor Fault Compensation”.
https://www.supergen-wind.org.uk/research/nov2018generalassembly
ISMA-USD International Conference on Noise and Vibration Engineering, Leuven, Belgium
September 2018.
Dr Nikolaos Dervilis presented a conference paper to the ISMA-USD International Conference on Noise and Vibration Engineering, Leuven, Belgium, September 2018. His talk was about data analysis and compress sensing in active health monitoring of wind turbine blades using outlier analysis uncertainty.
UKACC Control Conference, Sheffield
September 2018.
Yanhua Liu gave a presentation (Y Liu and R. J.Patton) “Wind Turbine Load Mitigation Using MPC with Gaussian Wind Speed Prediction” in a session “Energy and Power Systems” at the UKACC conference “Control 2018”. The session provided an excellent forum for discussion with other researchers working on Power and Energy Systems in a wider context.
International Conference on Electrical Machines (ICEM) Alexandroupolis, Greece, 3-5 September 2018.
Professor Zhu attended the conference and communicated with global researchers on various topics particularly associated with wind power generation.
Invited talk, ETH University, Zurich, Switzerland.
Dr Nikolaos Dervilis gave a presentation to an audience of primarily postgraduate students around offshore wind energy and the use of advanced machine learning tools in the sector.
IFAC Safeprocess Conference, Warsaw, August 2018.
Yanhua Liu gave a presentation of our work (Y Liu and R J Patton) “Fault-tolerant Individual Pitch Control using Adaptive Sliding Mode Observer” at an invited special session about “Fault tolerant control of wind turbines”. The session organised by Prof Ron Patton and Dr Silvio Simani (University of Ferrara) provided an excellent forum for discussion with other researchers working on this subject. The other session presenters are world experts in this subject.
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy Technical Workshop (EMD)
20-21 June 2018.
We continued with our 6-monthly programme of presentations by the PhD students and PDRAs working on the project. Each was asked to give an update on their work taking account of the feedback they had received from the first event in January. Their progress, the scope of their work and their plans for future research were all assessed against the requirements of our industrial partners. Attended by engineers/managers from Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Keele UK, and Brande Denmark.
Invited talk at IET Power Electronics, Machines and Drives International Conference, PEMD2018
Liverpool, UK.
Prof Z-Q Zhu, Dr S Xue, Prof D Stone, Prof M Foster, Dr Guang-Jin Li, and Dr A Griffo were in attendance at the conference.
Invited talk at Columbia University, New York, USA, March 2018; Dr Nikolaos Dervilis and Professor Keith Worden.
The talk was part of a technical seminar to establish collaboration and common research activities. This specific talk was about offshore wind farm turbine performance monitoring and about how the use of offshore wind farms has been growing in recent years in the UK.
Visit to Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy facilities at Keele
7 March 2018.
Six PhD students, four academic supervisors and one colleague from our industry sponsor made a visit to see the laboratories and facilities that Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy have at Keele. They were given: an introduction to SGRE (global company), an Introduction to Keele & Glasgow, a presentation on “The Wind Industry, Status, Prospects and Main Technical Issues”, an explanation of active development projects, an introduction to research work ongoing (outside of Sheffield), a description of graduate experiences and a tour of the laboratories.
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy Technical Workshop (EMD)
23-24 January 2018.
Presentations were given forming an overview of the global research activities associated with the project (in the form of literature reviews) and plans were finalised for the research topics, scope, and major direction for the project. Engineers and managers from Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Keele UK, and Brande Denmark were in attendance to provide advice and guidance to the students and post-doctoral researchers who were already contributing to the project.
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy Technical Workshop (EMD)
21 November 2017.
Brainstorming session on research topics for Direct-Drive Wind Power Generators, attended by engineers/managers from Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Brande Denmark.
Z.Q. Zhu, “A New Partnership in Offshore Wind,” Keynote speech at SUPERGEN Wind General Assembly, Manchester
16 November 2017.
Professor Z.Q. Zhu was invited to give an overview on the project “A new partnership in off-shore wind”, as a keynote speech at SUPERGEN Wind General Assembly, which was attended by approximately 60 members including researchers from the collaborating universities, and engineers and managers from the industrial partners.
Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy Technical Workshop (EMD)
10 October 2017.
Brainstorming session on research topics for converter topologies for Wind Turbine Generators, attended by engineers/managers from Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, Keele UK.