Welcome to WIRE
Mission
The main goal of our research is to improve our understanding and ability to predict turbulent transport of momentum and scalars (e.g., heat, water vapor, pollutants) in environmental flows, with emphasis on the atmospheric boundary layer and wind energy systems. Improved descriptions of those processes are developed and used in engineering, environmental and wind energy applications (e.g., weather, air quality and wind resource assessment models).
Our research involves a synergistic combination of experimental (field and wind tunnel) work, numerical modelling (large-eddy simulation) and theoretical development.
Specific areas of research include:
- Wind energy
- Flow over complex terrain
- Flow in urban canopies
- Large-Eddy Simulation
- Thermally stratified flows
- Boundary-layer turbulence
Last publications
A wind tunnel study on cyclic yaw control: Power performance and wake characteristics
Energy Conversion and Management. 2023-10-01. Vol. 293, p. 117445. DOI : 10.1016/j.enconman.2023.117445.A Fast Hybrid Pressure-Correction Algorithm for Simulating Incompressible Flows by Projection Methods
Algorithms. 2023-06-02. Vol. 16, num. 6, p. 287. DOI : 10.3390/a16060287.An experimental and analytical study of wind turbine wakes under pressure gradient
Physics of Fluids. 2023-04-21. Vol. 35, num. 4, p. 045140. DOI : 10.1063/5.0145043.Power Production and Blade Fatigue of a Wind Turbine Array Subjected to Active Yaw Control
Energies. 2023-03-01. Vol. 16, num. 6, p. 2542. DOI : 10.3390/en16062542.A wind tunnel study on cyclic yaw control in a wind farm model
Wind Energy Science Conference (WESC 2023), Glasgow, UK, May 23-25, 2023.Awards
Prof. Fernando Porté-Agel has won the ENAC Polysphère Award (2021-2022). This is the second time in under a decade. He uses concrete examples and novel teaching methods to make fluid mechanics a fun, interactive topic to study.
Prof. Fernando Porté-Agel won a 2016-2017 EPFL Polysphère Award. Every year, the AGEPOLY association awards 5 EPFL professors (one from each School) a Polysphère Award in recognition of the excellence of their teaching.
Vincent Rolin, PhD, received the 2017 Outstanding Student Poster and PICO (OSPP) Award, in the field of Energy, Resources and the Environment. The poster was presented at EGU (European Geosciences Union) in Vienna, Austria and is entitled: Counter-rotating vortex pairs in the wake of a vertical axis wind turbine
On May 23rd, 2017, Majid Bastankhah, postdoctoral researcher, received the ENAC – Earth Sciences and Engineering Award, in the field of environmental engineering for his publication entitled : Experimental and theoretical study of wind turbine wakes in yawed conditions, published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics.
Sina Shamsoddin, PhD, won the first prize – category Dynamic at the 2017 ACCES – Visualization Contest with a project entitled “Flow Through a Vertical-axis Wind Turbine Farm”. Theme this year was Computational Thinking.