Vincent Rolin

ERE Energy, Resources and the Environment

The 2017 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award is awarded to Vincent Rolin for the poster/PICO entitled:

Counter-rotating vortex pairs in the wake of a vertical axis wind turbine (Rolin, V.; Porté-Agel, F.)

Vincent Rolin is PhD student at the wind and renewable energy (WIRE) laboratory at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne under the supervision of Dr. Fernando Porté-Agel. He is studying the interaction of vertical axis wind turbine (VAWT) wakes with boundary layer flow as a part of a larger framework of wind farm optimization in atmospheric conditions. The work presented at the EGU general assembly 2017 consisted of empirical measurements which revealed the presence of a pair of counter rotating vortices in the wake of a VAWT, and drew a link to the wake behind yawed horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWT) which have similar features. The work also presented a model for predicting the aerodynamics of VAWTs based on previous models with a modification reflecting the similarity to yawed HAWTs. These findings are currently under review for publication.