Building a better turbine blade

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Excerpt: Craig Collier/President, Collier Research Corp./Hampton Roads, Va./ hypersizer.com A first objective on most any large design project is to get to the lightest weight possible. At NASA Langley Research Center, where I helped develop the code that later became HyperSizer, designs for space …

Higher rez maps ready for site wind and solar projects

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Excerpt: A wind-support firm says it has released a global solar map and dataset to complete its goal of identifying and mapping the world’s wind and solar resources using a globally consistent method. 3TIER, Seattle, says it has completed its effort to remap the world which began in March 2008 to address …

Asian firm selects design software to speed wind blade design, production

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Excerpt: A developer of industry-specific engineering software and services, Vistagy, Waltham, Mass., says one of China’s largest companies, Sinomatech Wind Power Blade Co., LTD, will use FiberSIM composites engineering software to help streamline its design-to-manufacturing operations so it can keep p …

Finally, engineering apps for the iPhone

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Excerpt: A range of engineering applications from MultiEducator’s iPhone are available for the iPhone. One called Civil Engineer contains 95 important formulas and will grow to over 200 in the next few months as developer, MultiEducator’s iPhone, adds 20 or more formulas each month in upgrades (free of c …

Wind and solar prospecting tools

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Excerpt: A program and database called Wind and Solar Prospecting Tools provides immediate access to seasonal variability data critical to understanding a site’s energy potential. The software, from 3Tier, Seattle, provides quick and unlimited access to seasonal data for wind and solar resources around the …

Help for generator designers

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Excerpt: Developer of MagNet says its Version 7, available mid-spring 2010, will let users simulate the magnetization of a permanent magnet, expand on MagNet's multicore support, and include other new features. V7.1, from Infolytica Corp., will allow simulating and determine the magnetic field strength i …

Rotor blades will deflect this much-says simulation software

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Excerpt: To bring costs down, wind-energy firms are recognizing the design benefits of numerical simulation. Transitioning to a simulation-based design process lets OEMs optimize performance and increase a turbine’s power output. A valuable tool in this process is Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) …

Pump-power calculation? There’s an app for that

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Excerpt: The $avings Predictor application, now available on Apple iTunes for iPhone (OS 3.1.2 or later) and iPod touch, provides estimates of energy savings when using a variable frequency drive instead of conventional volume control methods. The application comes from Yaskawa Electric America, Waukegan …

Developer says 20% blade weight reduction possible

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Excerpt: Increasing rotor blade length increases its swept area, thereby increasing the amount of captured energy. But larger blades add significant weight to a turbine. So reducing wind-structure weights through composite materials is essential to improving overall efficiency. HyperSizer Structural Sizi …

Simulating the Turbine-Simulating the Site

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Excerpt: Designing the most efficient and effective wind turbine calls for modeling tools that provide accurate, reliable numerical predictions of wind-turbine rotor performance over a machine’s full range of operating conditions. Simulating real-world conditions using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) le …