Wind turbines might be sprouting up across Ontario’s landscape, but the future of wind farms could lie within a six-sided dome soon to be housed at The University of Western Ontario’s Advanced Manufacturing Park.
Faculty of Engineering professor Horia Hangan, principal investigator of the Wind Engineering, Energy and Environment Dome (WindEEE), will focus his research on wind tunnel simulations to study wakes, boundary layers, jets and tornado-like vortices.
As the world’s first hexagonal wind tunnel, the Wind Engineering, Energy and Environment Dome – otherwise known as WindEEE Dome – will help improve structural engineering of wind turbines and design of wind farms.
WindEEE is also intended to protect against wind’s darker side.
“Wind has good and bad sides. Its force can spin windmills or disperse clouds, while at the same time it can also destroy lives and properties,” says Horia Hangan, principal investigator of the dome and a professor in the Faculty of Engineering.
“At WindEEE, all our work will be focused on ways of enhancing the creative energy of the wind and ways to dissipate its destructive nature.”
WindEEE Dome will be the first project built in London’s newly established Advanced Manufacturing Park, a joint venture between Western, Fanshawe College and the City of London. A ceremony was held on April 30 to launch the project.
Hangan’s research focuses on wind tunnel simulations to study wakes, boundary layers, jets and tornado-like vortices. His work will further understanding of wind flow, wind energy, pollution dispersion, and how winds affect structures such as buildings and bridges.
WindEEE Dome is designed to be 40 metres across and will contain more than 100 fans, each about one metre in diameter. Together, they can create winds of up to 100 kilometres per hour.
It will simulate high-intensity wind systems, including tornados, downbursts and gust fronts that cannot be created in any existing wind tunnels. Smoke will be used inside the WindEEE Dome to allow researchers to watch the effects and patterns of storms in progress.
The ability to improve wind energy predictions using large-scale models of wind farms is already attracting industry interest, says Peter White, president and CEO of London Economic Development Corporation.
“We are in talks with two significant wind manufacturers. They are looking at long-term capabilities to develop and manufacture better products,” says White, noting the WindEEE Dome is a prominent selling point.
“A facility like the WindEEE Dome allows us to work with the wind industry, the building products industry, and companies that are involved with advanced materials to look at ways to enhance their product, (and) better protect products.”
The dome can serve as a test bed for wind turbine manufacturers.
“We want to become a leader in research and development for new things related to wind energy,” says Hangan.
“We are studying wind turbine blades and while we will study the aerodynamics of the blades and how to improve them, there are issues related to the way they are constructed and materials that are used in those blades.
We also look at the wind effects on the whole structure of a wind turbine… starting from the blades, the rotor, the tower and the foundation.
“We also want to be part of the certification process; we want to be part of the way wind farms are developed,” he says, noting more can be learned about how wind turbines interact.
The $23.6-million price tag for WindEEE Dome is being partly funded through the Canada Foundation for Innovation ($9.5 million) and the Ontario Research Fund ($9.5 million).
The land was donated by the City of London in Phase IV of Innovation Park on Bradley Avenue east of Veterans Memorial Parkway. London provided 25 acres to Western, plus 3.2 acres that will have joint access.
Replacing the dandelions and rolling terrain on the northern part of the land will be the dome. Construction will begin late this fall and the building should be operational by June 2012.
Last fall at the London Economic Development Corporation Summit, Western President Amit Chakma encouraged city leaders to work together to develop partnerships and innovation.
The Advanced Manufacturing Park is an example of how city partners are collaborating to attract new industries and investments to the area, says Chakma.
“The Advanced Manufacturing Park … is really a field of dreams,” he says.
The city will be strategically recruiting companies that integrate well with Western and Fanshawe’s research interests, says White.
“As companies work through where they are going to be located and set up, more and more they are trying to establish facilities in areas where they can have that interlink between research, commercialization and development.”
The dome will attract top researchers, graduate and postdoctoral students who “want to get their hands on the facility,” says Ted Hewitt, Western’s Vice-President (Research and International Relations).
“It’s going to offer a unique capacity for research and development in wind engineering that no one else offers in the world.”
As the first of its kind, the construction of WindEEE Dome will also be a research project. Builders will study the efficiency of the fan placement and the systems used to create the wind, and will become the model for future domes, says Hewitt.
In addition to the WindEEE Dome, Western is pursuing a second project for the Advanced Manufacturing Park.
Western is seeking funding for a partnership with the Fraunhofer Institute of Chemical Technology in Germany to establish The International Composites Research Centre and to bring a large-scale press for testing and manufacturing lightweight composite parts for the auto sector and other London industries.
Western now has three research parks. In addition to the new Advanced Manufacturing Park, the Research and Development Park has its original 50-acre park adjacent to Western’s campus, and an 80-acre Sarnia-Lambton Campus.