Niall O’Neill 

Project Description

The main focus of my project is to quantify the effect of model and parameter uncertainty on the design of wind farms, with a focus on achieving better AEP. There are many facets to this problem that may be addressed. One of the primary research objectives is to develop a multi-fidelity framework for wind farm design under uncertainty, capable of robust layout optimization. This may involve coupling CFD and engineering models in the design process. Other factors may also be incorporated into the optimization problem. 

Supervisors

Pierre-Elouan Réthoré (DTU) 

Antoine Mathieu (EDF) 

Julian Quick (DTU) 

Rem-Sophia Mouradi (EDF) 

Background

I grew up in Cork, Ireland and completed a M.Eng in mechanical engineering at the University of Limerick, Ireland, graduating in 2024. During my education, I completed many internships in a wide range of areas from Biotechnology to testing Floating Wind turbines and completed my Masters Thesis in Aeroacoustic modelling in OpenFOAM. Outside of work, I am quite active and enjoy hiking, jiu jitsu and GAA (Gaelic Sports) among many other things. 

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My reason for applying for this PhD project is that it combines the majority of my professional interests into one project. Research (broadly speaking), Renewable Energy, Numerical Modelling & Data Science / Statistics. I was keen to address Uncertainty Quantification as I have previous done many CFD based projects and felt that its importance was under-stated. I was drawn by the opportunity to learn from world class researchers at DTU & EDF, as this PhD program is carried out with an emphasis on industry collaboration. Also, spending some time in Copenhagen and Paris throughout the process sounded like a good deal!