Kenninger Family Lecture
20% Wind Energy by 2030:
An Engineering Grand
Challenge
Dr. Doug Adams
Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Center for Systems Integrity
Purdue University
Tuesday, September 29, 2009, 11:00 a.m.
Mechanical Engineering, Rm. 256
Abstract
Today, the U.S. derives only 1.5% of the electricity we consume from wind energy
and 9% from renewable sources overall, but the Department of Energy seeks to
reach 20% energy from wind by 2030. On the way to achieving this long-term goal,
the Administration’s short-term goal is to double the use of renewable energy in the
U.S. by 2012. But wind energy is sold at a 2¢ premium over energy derived from
fossil fuels (not including government subsidies), and modern turbines only operate
at 35% capacity; therefore, it is not economically feasible to reach 20% wind energy
unless more reliable and operationally inexpensive turbines are developed. This
seminar will describe several urgent needs for prognostic health management of
wind turbines. Prognostic methods in engineering aim to sense, predict, and control
the reliability and performance of dynamic systems throughout their lifecycles. For
example, over the 20-year lifecycle of a turbine, there are needs for reliability-based
design, manufacturing quality assurance, usage monitoring, nondestructive
inspection, condition monitoring, and active control. All of these areas involve the
timely use prognostic tools to maximize reliability/performance. The seminar also
presents a vision for Indiana’s (and Purdue’s) role in wind power engineering
research and education, and several new initiatives in wind energy research and
technology commercialization at Purdue are also highlighted.
Biography
Dr. Douglas Adams is Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University and
Director of the Center for Systems Integrity, which is developing new methods for
prognosis-driven engineering to increase the reliability and reduce the operational
costs of engineered systems including renewable energy systems. He has
graduated 22 MS/PhD students, published more than 160 papers, and delivered
over 60 invited presentations and two-dozen short courses worldwide including
several keynote addresses. Dr. Adams published the first textbook on Health
Monitoring of Structural Materials and Components in 1997 and has won numerous
awards for research and teaching including the Presidential Early Career Award,
Structural Health Monitoring Person of the Year Award, Society for Experimental
Mechanics
DeMichele
Award, and is listed in
the Purdue Book of
Great Teachers. His
research focuses on the
solution
of
inverse
problems in diagnostics
using nonlinear system
identification techniques
and on the prognosis
and control of remaining
useful life of engineered
systems including wind
turbines,
aircraft,
spacecraft,
ground
vehicles,
and
manufacturing
equipment. His industry
partners
have
implemented many of his
research discoveries to
improve system reliability
and performance. For
example,
he
has
developed
integrated
blade sensing and state
awareness algorithms for
wind turbine rotor blades
with Sandia National
Laboratory,
characterized
the
dynamic response of
wind turbine gearboxes
for National Renewable
Energy Laboratory, and
researched
structural
health
monitoring
technologies that are
now used routinely by his
government and industry
partners.
There will be a reception
starting at 10:30 a.m. in
ME 254.