Colloquium: Julie Paddeu (EWEM)

This thesis addresses the need for medium-fidelity wake models for accurate and efficient fatigue and aeroelastic load calculations. It investigates using the FEM with Hermite splines to solve the Ainslie wake model and integrates the pressure due to actuator disk forcing to enhance model physics. Challenges encountered with higher-order Hermite splines prompted a transition to piecewise linear functions, which have shown to be compatible with the continuity equation and effective in solving the diffusion term. However, stability issues emerged, likely due to LBB condition not being met. Consequently, an existing FVM solver for the Ainslie wake model was adopted to incorporate the forcing. This approach ensured mass and momentum conservation, resulted in axial velocity profiles consistent with literature, and improved physics. Despite unresolved stability concerns, the research underscores the potential of the FEM and lays the foundation for implementation of a Poisson solver to enhance wake modelling within computational limits.

Supervisor: Delphine de Tavernier