Use of Wind Turbines to Reduce the Power of Hurricanes
Course Project
For this semester, you will be required to complete a course project. This project is focused on addressing the ABET outcome that graduates will have knowledge of contemporary issues and has several options as described below. This can be an individual student project or as a team – maximum is a 4-student team.
Contemporary Issues in Fluid Mechanics
For this option, you will develop a 2-3page overview of a contemporary issue in fluid mechanics.
This semester, I would like to know how you would use what you learned in this Fluid Mechanics course to prevent or address hurricane damage. You should look at the damage caused by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria for project topics like their effect on the habitat, infrastructure, etc.
You need to have your topic approved by me by November 2nd. I will not accept project topics not approved by me. I would suggest starting this early; I may deny your first choice or another person/team may have already selected that topic. If denied, you will need to find a different topic and the topic needs to be finalized by this date.
This will be on an 8.5 x 11 page, single space, Times New Roman, 12 pt, 1” margin. If you include a graph, photo or image, you can go up to 3 pages. 3 pages is the MAX. Make sure to list ALL references used to develop this summary. Note: The project will be submitted using the “Turn-It- In” software on ecampus.wvu.edu to check for plagiarism. If you plagiarize your paper, you will get a zero on the project. If you don't know what plagiarism is, please see me. Please use the following header for your paper.
Contemporary Issues in Fluid Mechanics **Topic Title**
This needs to be submitted also as a hard copy by the due date with no exceptions.
If you are not sure if your topic meets the criterion this project, please bounce it off of me to make sure your topic is a valid one.
November 28th: this is the due date for this submission. This is the before-last regular class period. The write up needs to be submitted electronically using the “Turn-It-In” software on ecampus.wvu.edu as well as a hard copy to me by 2 pm on this day. For this topic, it may be helpful to include one or more images on your concept. NO late projects will be accepted. You can submit at any point before the deadline.
The grade for this project will count as 5% of your final grade.
Professor’s Name:
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Use of Wind Turbines to Reduce the Power of Hurricanes
Massive storm surge due to hurricanes Harvey and Irma has led to destructions of the environment, cars, and buildings among other important assets and liabilities on several occasions in targeted areas of Florida and Texas resulting to huge economic losses of between $ 150 billion and $ 200 billion damages. Loss of human life has also been reported whereby Federal force interventions get involved in saving of thousands of human lives. This paper, therefore, tries to find a solution to the hurricanes by the use of wind turbines to reduce the power of the hurricanes. Wind turbine mechanism involves the use fluid mechanics to control the impact of the atmospheric storm on the sea temperatures layers by either reducing the impact or suspending the hurricane emergency. The paper also explores the causes of the hurricanes by reviewing various case studies where hurricane frequently occurs to help build a foundation for the wind turbine as a control tool for hurricanes.
Causes of hurricanes
Hurricanes remain a threat to humanity and properties as scientists profoundly mention its impact. In many cases of its occurrence, for instance, the Miami hurricane of 1926, the insurance industry incurred over $75 billion in insured losses. Concurrently, whenever they occur, evacuation expenses always shoot owing to the intensities of the storms. Combination of better forecast tracks of hurricanes has been initiated over the past three decades in search for better observation and numerical models (Koutsoyiannis, Demetris, pp. 2-22). However, advancement in the prediction of the maximum wind speed technologies has not taken deep routes to bring down the hurricanes.
Theoretically, the occurrences still become unpredictable since the resultant pressure alters the ocean surface temperatures over which they pass thus decreasing the energy of the ocean to fight back. The disturbance is so imminent in the upper troposphere where vertical shear of the horizontal wind and dynamical features prevail. The magnitude of tropical cyclones is the difference in the vertical shear of the wind experienced in the upper and lower troposphere. Thus, the ocean becomes a strong negative against the intensity of the storm resulting in the emergence of uncontrollable hurricanes.
Wind turbines modeling
The wind model targets to characterize the dynamic wind loads resulting from the hurricane storms. The model is embedded with turbulent flow structures that focus on the aerodynamic forces by using highly sensitive force moment sensor units with high-resolution digital particle image velocimetry system (PIV). The PIV ensure accurate quantification of the turbulent vortex flow in the wind turbine model (Johnson, Richard, p. 42). The wind turbine technology should be installed on/offshore to meet the pressure difference from the stormy winds and the oceanic, atmospheric pressure to strike a balance.
The model assumes that the atmospheric pressure of the storm is axisymmetric, and the airflow between the horizontal and vertical pressure is centrifugally balanced. At this point, the vortex assumes the state of neutrality as a conventional combination of centrifugal force and the force of gravity. Optimally, the design of the vortex requires an understanding of the dynamic wind loads to quantify the uncertain behaviors of the wind patterns resulting from the stormy pressure. The use of PIV initially reveals the velocity of the wind deficit from the direction of the wind. The set-up of the wind turbine is in such a way that the wind speed can be measured by the use of hot wire anemometer that sends a signal of wind speeds at elevations of 10 m resulting from the atmospheric boundary layer winds.
Properties of the wind turbine model
The three-dimensional horizontal axial wind turbines (HAWT) contain twisted blades to allow sharp turning of 20o to 100 elevations. Scientifically, the short angle of elevation of the blades will allow the fast speed of the blades. In the middle of the blades are the airfoils constructed at the cross-section of the blades to allow improved performance of the aerodynamic arising from the incoming winds (H...