Version 2
Universidade Nacional da Irlanda em Galway -- Ciência sem Fronteiras
PhD Project Template



Use one form per project
Please complete & submit to international@nuigalway.ie as soon as possible, and by 27/11/2012
In your email, begin the subject line with [SWB] (be sure to use square brackets) to ensure that
your email is filed correctly. Emails will be automatically filed
PI name & contact details:
Dr Rory Monaghan
School:
Energy Systems Engineering
Has project been agreed with head
(or nominee) of proposed
registration school?
n/a
Research Centre / group
affiliation:
Member of:
Informatics Research Unit for Sustainable Energy (IRUSE)
Combustion Chemistry Centre (C3)
Research group / centre
http://www.nuigalway.ie/iruse/
website:
http://c3.nuigalway.ie/
PI website / link to CV:
http://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=10194626&trk=tab_pro
http://c3.nuigalway.ie/staff/rory_monaghan.html
Brief summary of PI research / research group / centre activity (2 or 3 lines max):
 Advanced numerical techniques (CFD & reduced-order modelling) for thermo-fluid energy
applications
 Analysis & modelling of sustainable energy pathways & technology options
Title & brief description of PhD project (suitable for publication on web):
From Blade to Farm: Accurate and Efficient Prediction of Wind Farm Performance
As wind energy matures and becomes a mainstream resource around the world, wind farm
operators frequently find electricity production fails to match initial predictions. There are many
factors that can influence this phenomenon, but key among them is a lack of accurate fluid dynamic
models for wind farms during the planning and construction phases. Understanding the dependence
of wind turbine output on factors such as transient climatic and meteorological conditions, and
turbine spacing and interference would allow developers to better predict wind farm performance.
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations present challenges and opportunities in this field.
On the one hand, CFD can be used to understand and predict, with potentially high accuracy and at
high computational expense, air flow around individual blades and/or turbines. On the other hand
however, scaling this CFD simulation up to encompass the entire farm is beyond practical
commercially-available computational budgets.
This research proposes to address this issue through the use of reduced-order models (ROMs) that
are automatically generated from CFD simulations of individual wind turbines. This approach is
known as CFD-ROM and has been and is currently being developed by the PI for energy applications
Version 2
Universidade Nacional da Irlanda em Galway -- Ciência sem Fronteiras
as diverse as combustion, building energy use and ocean energy. Once a CFD model of a wind
turbine has been validated, the computational domain is coarsened to reduce its computational
expense while retaining treatment of the most important physical phenomena. This ROM is then
replicated for every turbine in the wind farm, giving an accurate yet computationally-efficient wind
farm simulation.
Unique selling points of PhD project in NUI Galway:




Work with IRUSE, an internationally-renowned energy modelling and informatics research group
Work as part of the Ryan Institute for environment, marine & energy research, one of the largest
interdisciplinary groups in this field in Europe
Very strong and active research links to industry in this technology area, e.g. ESB International
Work will be performed in NUI Galway’s Engineering Building, the largest engineering education
facility in Ireland
Name & contact details for project queries, if different from PI named above:
Please indicate the graduates of which disciplines that should apply:
Mechanical Engineering, Energy Systems Engineering, Engineering
Ciência sem Fronteiras / Science Without Borders Priority Area:
Please indicate the specific programme priority area under which the proposed PhD project fits- choose only
one (tick box):
Engineering and other technological areas
Pure and Natural Sciences (e.g. mathematics, physics, chemistry)/Physical Sciences (Mathematics,
Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geosciences)
Health and Biomedical Sciences / Clinical, Pré-clinical and Health Sciences
Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), Computing
Aerospace
Pharmaceuticals
Sustainable Agricultural Production
Oil, Gas and Coal
Renewable Energy
X
Minerals, Minerals Technology
Biotechnology
Nanotechnology and New Materials
Technologies for Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Disasters
Bioprospecting and Biodiversity
Marine Sciences
Creative Industry
New technologies in constructive engineering
Version 2
Universidade Nacional da Irlanda em Galway -- Ciência sem Fronteiras
Please indicate which of the following applies to this project (referring to Science Without Borders
arrangements):
Suitable only as a Full PhD (Y/N): Y
Available to candidates seeking a Sandwich PhD arrangement (Y/N): N
Suitable for either/Don’t know: N