Public thesis defense Emmanuel Gillyns - IMMC
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Wind tunnel experiments of a model scale wind turbine and its digital twin based on Large Eddy Simulation
Wednesday October 21st, 2026 - 4:15pm - Auditorium More 54 - Place Montesquieu 1, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
This dissertation addresses a critical challenge in wind energy research: accurately predicting wind turbine wakes using Large Eddy Simulation (LES), which depends heavily on high-quality experimental validation data.
The work introduces a new model-scale wind turbine called TWIST (Turbine for Wind tunnel Investigation & Scaled Testing), designed and experimentally characterized in a controlled wind tunnel environment with detailed hot-wire measurements. On the numerical side, several methodological advances enable cost-efficient and physically consistent LES, including wall-modeled LES implementation, novel inflow control methods (RPS and ACTIF), and a continuous Actuator Line Model (cALM) for representing turbine aerodynamics.
These developments are integrated into an LES-based digital twin of the TWIST experiment. Comparisons with experimental measurements show that the framework captures essential near-wake flow features and reproduces observed trends under varying operating conditions, demonstrating strong predictive quality. Overall, this combined experimental-numerical approach provides a solid foundation for future investigations of wind turbine wakes and more reliable LES-based tools for wind energy research.
Jury members
Prof. Grégoire Winckelmans (UCLouvain), Supervisor
Prof. Jeroen van Beeck (von Karman Institute, Belgique), Supervisor
Prof. Renaud Ronsse (UCLouvain), Chairperson
Dr. Matthieu Duponcheel (UCLouvain), Secretary
Dr. Sophia Buckingham (ENGIE Laborelec, Belgique)
Prof. Sandrine Aubrun (Ecole Centrale de Nantes, France)
Prof. Joris Degroote (UGent, Belgique)