Older News
2018
- Our lab has moved to the new Engineering Building.
- Kevin successfully defended his MS thesis. He has started a new job at MD Helicopters.
- Bryce successfully defended his MS thesis. He has started a new job at Raytheon.
- Ryan’s journal article on turbine blade optimization was published in Wind Energy.
- PJ visited Copper Hills High School again to teach 500 high school physics students about the basics of wind energy.
- PJ was an invited speaker for the department graduate information banquet.
- PJ won 2nd place in the department’s 3-minute thesis competition, and 3rd place in the college’s competition.
- PJ was recognized as the department’s outstanding TA for Fall 2017 (with a perfect 10/10 on his student ratings)!
- Eduardo presented a poster at the C-UAS IAB meeting.
- We welcome Austin Schenk as a new MS student starting Winter semester.
2017
- The FLOW Lab welcomes new MS students Jenna Newcomb, Teagan Nakamoto, and Nicholas Baker starting Fall semester.
- Congratulations to Taylor for receiving a Utah NASA Space Grant Consortium fellowship!
- The FLOW Lab welcomes new PhD student Eduardo Alvarez starting Spring term. He is interested in the aerodynamics and design of electric aircraft and high altitude wind devices.
- PJ visited Copper Hills High School over a period of two days to teach 500 high school physics students about the basics of wind energy.
- PJ, Taylor, and Judd all successfully passed their PhD Qualifying exams!
- PJ was selected to represent the Mechanical Engineering graduate program at the BYU grad expo. See his poster here.
- Eric successfully defended his MS Thesis, “The Development of a Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine Wake Model for Use in Wind Farm Layout Optimization with Noise Level Constraints,” and has accepted a job as Systems Engineer at Honeywell Aerospace in Torrance, CA. Check out this short video summarizing his work.
- Dr. Ning received the 2016 Mechanical Engineering Department Outstanding Research Award.
2016
- Ryan Barrett presented on “Free-form Aerostructural Optimization of Wind Turbine Blades” at AWEA WINDPOWER in New Orleans, LA.
- Dr. Ning presented on “Large-Scale Wind Farm Optimization and Uncertainty Quantification” at the Windfarms 2016 conference in Dallas, TX.
- The FLOW Lab received two funded research grants from FCL Tech (Facebook). One on “Conceptual Design of High Altitude Long Endurance Aircraft Using Multidisciplinary Optimization” and one on “Efficient High-Fidelity Aeroelastic Analysis and Design of Long Endurance Aircraft”. These research studies are collaborative involving faculty and students from Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Computer Science.
- Congratulations to P.J. Stanley, Taylor McDonnell, Kevin Moore, Bryce Ingersoll, Mikkel Unrau, and Jeffrey Carruth on completing their undergraduate degrees! P.J., Taylor, Kevin, and Bryce will remain in our lab to pursue graduate degrees. Mikkel is starting a graduate degree in the Turbomachinery Research Lab.
- Ryan Barrett’s journal paper “Comparison of Airfoil Precomputational Analysis Methods for Optimization of Wind Turbine Blades” is now available through IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy (or as a preprint on this site).
- Dr. Ning gave an invited talk Aircraft Multidisciplinary Design Optimization and Aerodynamics at the USTAR Meeting at BYU.
- Dr. Ning gave an invited talk Wind Farm Optimization and UQ at the Wakebench Annual Meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
- Dr. Ning gave an invited talk Wind Energy Design Optimization at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
- Congratulations to Bryce Ingersoll on receiving a Department of Mechanical Engineering Graduate Research Fellowship!
- Congratulations to P.J. Stanley on receiving a Department of Mechanical Engineering Graduate Research Fellowship!
- Our paper “Integrated design of downwind land-based wind turbines using analytic gradients” is now available through Wind Energy (or as a preprint on this site).
- Bryce Ingersoll and Dagan Pielstick presented at the Utah Conference on Undergraduate Research. Their presents were titled “UAV Path-Planning Optimization using Bezier Curves and a Receding Horizon Approach” and “Vertical Axis Turbine Wake Interaction” respectively.
- Dr. Ning was selected as a new member of the AIAA Multidisciplinary Design Optimization Technical Committee.
- Dr. Ning gave a presentation on Large Scale Design Optimization to the Condensed Matter Group at BYU.
- Dr. Ning gave a presentation on Large Scale Design Optimization with Mixed Variables to visitors from the Air Force Research Laboratory.
- Eric Tingey, Kevin Moore, and Matt Duffield presented conference papers at AIAA SciTech. Preprints, code, and data, are linked under Publications.
- Parameterized Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine Wake Model Using CFD Vorticity Data by Eric Tingey and Andrew Ning.
- Aerodynamic Performance Characterization of Leading Edge Protrusions on Small Propellers by Kevin Moore and Andrew Ning
- Optimization-Based Path Planning for Separation Assurance on Small Unmanned Aircraft by Matthew Duffield, Andrew Ning, and Timothy McLain.
2015
- We received funding from the company Twig & Wire to investigate a novel vertical axis wind turbine design.
- We received an internal seed grant to explore aeroelastic optimization of wing/blade structures using isogemetric analysis with PI Michael Scott.
- Our recently initiated research on wind farm optimization under uncertainty was featured on the BYU Office of Research and Creative Activities website.
- We were awarded NSF Grant #1539384: “CyberSEES: Type 1: Collaborative Research: Large-Scale, Integrated, and Robust Wind Farm Optimization Enabled by Coupled Analytic Gradients” (PI: Ning, Collaborator: Juan Alonso).
- Dr. Ning presented a research proposal on Aeroelasticity and Multidisciplinary Analysis for Long Endurance UAVs at the NSF Center for Unmanned Aircraft Systems Industry Advisory Board Meeting.
- Eric Tingey, Jared Thomas, Ryan Barrett, and Kevin Moore presented their recent research in wind farm layout optimization, blade design, and propeller testing at the 2015 Utah Fluids Conference.
- Dr. Ning gave a workshop on Python for Scientific Computing for the 2015 Utah Fluids Conference. Materials can be found under Resources.
- Eric Tingey, Jared Thomas, and Ryan Barrett all presented papers at the IEEE Conference on Technologies for Sustainability. Preprints can be found under the publications link.
- Wind Farm Layout Optimization Using Sound Pressure Level Constraints by Eric Tingey, Jared Thomas, and Andrew Ning
- Comparison of Two Wake Models for Use in Gradient-based Wind Farm Layout Optimization by Jared Thomas, Eric Tingey, and Andrew Ning
- Effect of Airfoil and Composite Layer Thicknesses on an Aerostructural Blade Optimization for Wind Turbines by Ryan Barrett, Ian Freeman, and Andrew Ning
- Dr. Ning gave an invited presentation on Advances in Wind Energy and the Role of Multidisciplinary Optimization at the IEEE Conference on Technologies for Sustainability
- Dr. Ning spent a week at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to collaborate on the wind farm optimization project and to release a rewritten version of TowerSE.
- Jared Thomas is spending the summer at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to collaborate with researchers in the systems engineering and wind farm controls groups. He is working on providing analytic gradients to the FLORIS wind turbine wake model.
- Congratulations to Ryan Barrett, Jared Thomas, Eric Tingey, (graduated in Dec. walked this spring) and Nick Bons on graduating with their B.S. in Mechanical Engineering! Ryan, Jared, and Eric are continuing their graduate work here, and Nick is heading to the University of Michigan for graduate work.
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- Congratulations to Eric Tingey on receiving a BYU Graduate Research Fellowship.
- The FLOW Lab has received NIH funding to support a study on “Quantiative Characterization of Essential Tremor for Future Tremor Suppression” under PI Dr. Charles. We will support the optimization aspects of the study.
- Our paper “Wind Plant System Engineering through Optimization of Layout and Yaw Control” is now available online in Wind Energy.
- Congratulations to Ryan Barrett on receiving a Department of Mechanical Engineering Graduate Research Fellowship.
- Dr. Ning gave an invited talk titled “MDO in Wind Energy and Aeronautics” at the BYU Chemical Engineering Graduate Seminar.
- Nick Bons received an ORCA Grant to work on 2D Analysis of Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Wake.
- Eric Tingey partcipated in the Mechanical Engineering Department’s Three Minute Thesis Competition.
- The FLOW Lab received an internal grant (MEG Grant) to investigate vertical-axis wind turbine wake development.
- Dr. Ning gave an invited talk titled “Land-based Downwind Wind Turbine Optimization” at the 2015 NREL Wind Energy Systems Engineering Workshop.
- Dr. Ning presented a paper on “Development and Validation of a New Blade Element Momentum Skewed-Wake Model within AeroDyn” at the 2015 AIAA SciTech Meeting.
2014