The Covid-19 pandemic is still progressing globally and a small but significant fraction of patients need mechanical ventilation at some point. Although some countries have sufficient ventilators, there are indications of a future global shortage of such devices.
Vertical-axis wind turbines, when placed close together, have an improved power production and very interesting aerodynamics. The experimental side of this project is the PhD project of Antoine Vergaerde. The computational side of the project is taken care of by Greeshma Boohalli Shivamallegowda. Both Antoine and Greeshma are supervised by Tim De Troyer and myself.
There is considerable uncertainty about the role that small and medium wind turbines may play in the production of sustainable electricity. In the present work, we identify the main factors affecting the economic viability of small and medium wind turbines (herafter SMWTs). We then propose a framework for more efficient and reliable predictions of the annual energy production of SMWTs.