Lead Investigator: Dr. Tam
The National Renewal Energy Laboratory (NREL) of the Department of Energy is contemplating to expand its wind energy program. One of the most objectionable aspect of wind turbine is its noise, especially at night. Low frequency wind turbine noise can propagate over very long distance without attenuation. At the present time, most wind turbines are concentrated in the West and in sparsely populated regions. Any significant increase in the number of wind turbines will mean locating them closer to populated areas.
With its track record in acoustics, FSU is in a prime position to attack this important ecological problem. Currently, methods to predict wind turbine noise are largely empirical and are often inaccurate. It is envisioned that the new generation of computational aeroacoustics tools developed at FSU during the last 10 years will provide the basis for the development of accurate physics-based prediction schemes.
The Center for Computational Mechanics can help to initiate such an effort in conjunction with possible seed funding from the National Wind Technology Center of NREL. The proposed computational approach, when proven successful, will establish FSU as a dominant center in wind-turbine noise technology. This same technology could also have applications in automobile, household air-conditioning and many types of computer cooling fan noise as well other forms of rotating machinery noise.