A student has solved a 100-year-old math problem, which opens up new possibilities for harnessing wind energy
A Penn State engineering student refined a century-old math problem into a simpler, more elegant form, making it easier to use and explore. Divya Tyagi’s work expands research in aerodynamics, unlocking new possibilities in wind turbine design that Hermann Glauert, a British aerodynamicist and the original author, did not consider.
Tyagi, a graduate student pursuing her master’s degree in aerospace engineering, completed this work as a Penn State undergraduate for her Schreyer Honors College thesis. Her research was published in Wind Energy Science.
“I created an addendum to Glauert’s problem which determines the optimal aerodynamic performance of a wind turbine by solving for the ideal flow conditions for a turbine in order to maximize its power output,” said Tyagi, who earned her bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering.
Her adviser, Sven Schmitz, the Boeing/A.D. Welliver Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and co-author on the paper, said Glauert’s original work focused exclusively on the maximum attainable power coefficient, which measures how efficiently a turbine converts wind energy into electricity. However, Glauert did not account for the total force and moment coefficients acting on the rotor — the spinning unit with attached blades — or how turbine blades bend under wind pressure.
