Spinning Me Softly – Using HPC to Engineer Quieter Turbines

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Giant wind turbines can make a lot of noise, to the point that neighbors are complaining and holding up renewable energy deployments. To tackle this problem, GE is working with Sandia National Laboratories on new, quieter turbine designs.

There’s no question, aerodynamic noise is a key constraint in wind turbine blade design today”, said Mark Jonkhof, Wind Technology Platform Leader at GE Global Research. “By using high-performance computing to advance current engineering models that are used to predict blade noise, we can build quieter rotors with greater blade tip velocity that produce more power. This not only means lower energy costs for consumers, but also a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.”

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