Aerodynamics

## Previous knowledge

* Programming in Python and/or Matlab: A very essential skill in EWEM, since most courses involve programming. Some experience with plotting, reading files and Git is recommended. Learning Python or Matlab if you know another language should be doable during the first semester.
	+ Pro tip: There is an introductory coding course, called the "Code Camp", one week before the start of introduction week. We strongly recommend going there, as you can freshen up your coding skills and meet a lot wind energy students. You can also attend this course online. The course is hosted by Jenni and Antonio, who are really nice and insanely knowledgeable.
* Aerodynamics and fluid mechanics: Basic knowledge gets you a long way. You'll learn the essential skills along the way.
* CFD: Not a deal breaker, but a strong recommendation to have some knowledge of the basic concepts. Turbulence modelling will be a baptism of fire without.

## 1st semester - DTU

### Mandatory Courses

* **Wind Turbine Technology and Aerodynamics (46300 - 10 ECTS):** This is a cool course to be a part of. This is one course which is mandatory and common for all tracks of EWEM. It gives a good overview of all the various concepts involved in the design and functioning of a wind turbine. The course is divided into different sections with two assignments. One part of the course is all about the mechanical concepts of a wind turbine and the part is all about the electrical concepts. This course demands a decent knowledge and experience in programming. Two 4hr blocks a week and the lecture mainly comprises of introduction to the concepts and working on assignments or exercises for the rest of the period. Lecturer is technically sound with the concepts and gives proper guidance and assistance with the assignments and exercises. Evaluation is based on the two assignments and a 4hr long exam based on the assignment and exercises done during the lecture sessions. The first and the second assignment are provided by different lecturers. While for the first assignment (writing a BEM code) the support by the lecturers is great, the lecturer for the second assignment (the electrical part) is hard to reach and you might feel a bit on your own with the tasks.

* **Advanced Fluid Mechanics (41320 - 5 ECTS):** Decent course on general fluid mechanics problems: governing equations, vorticity, ideal flow, laminar flow, boundary layers, instabilities. Lectures are pre-recorded and can be watched at any time (very easy to fall behind and lecturer speaks very slowly). One 4hr block a week. Lecturer starts with brief recap of video lecture followed by exercises from the book (Kundu Fluid Mechanics 6th ed.), there is also an ungraded quiz at the end. Assessment consists on two individual exercises/reports and one final MCQ test.
* **Turbulence Modeling (46115 - 5 ECTS):** This course acts as a substitute for a general course on CFD, (41317 – Computational Fluid Dynamics), since it got moved to the spring semester. The turbulence modelling course provides a background for the formulation and numerical solution of general turbulent flow problems, including classical wall resolved and wall modelled channel flows and synthetic turbulence generation, using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques. Since this course is a 5ECTS course, you have one lecture of 4 hours every week. The assessment of the course is based on three assignments and an oral exam at the end. The assignments are a lot of work, as they require a lot of work to understand and execute. However, when you put in the effort, you can learn a lot in a very short time. Therefore, this course has a very steep learning curve, which might be intimidating and also has a lot higher work load than 5ECTS, so just be aware of this. It is normal to feel lost and intimidated, but you still get an excellent grade if you put in the effort. Also asks a lot of questions to the lecturer.

### Elective Courses

* **Planning and Development of Wind Farms (46200 - 5 ECTS):** A 3 week course provided in January and based on popular opinion it is by far the most enjoyable course in DTU. During the course it is 1 week of all lectures followed by 2 weeks of work on a project. The course deals with the design, development and management of a wind farm using software tools and also gain knowledge with the economics of a wind farm. Also provides insight on the environmental, societal and legal impacts of a wind farm in a particular region. Course is taught by different lecturers and field experts in each field. Assessment is based on a 1hr MCQ quiz, presentation about the chosen project and a 30-40 page long report about the project. This course requires a lot of team work and will give practical exposure about what effort goes into planning and commissioning of a wind farm. The course also includes one day field visit to an established wind farm in Denmark. (This however could not happen in 2021 due to COVID-19 restrictions)

* **Introduction to machine learning and data mining (02450 - 5 ECTS):** Great course to get machine learning basics. Starts with some probability, statistics and data visualisation. Most of the course focuses on supervised learning (classification and regression) but there is a small part on unsupervised learning as well. One 4hr block a week with lecture and exercises. Exercises are both theoretical MCQ questions and coding examples. The choice between Python, Matlab or R is given. Grade is given based on two project reports and on final MCQ theory exam.

* **Turbulent Flows (41129 - 5 ECTS):** This course gives a thorough theoretical understanding of the flow processes in turbulent boundary layers and turbulent flows. Even though it is an elective course, it acts symbiotically with the turbulence modelling course, and is therefore good to take as it provides good foundation and support for conceptual understanding. When you follow this course you have one 4-hour block a week from which the first 2 hours are lectures on the theory and the second 2 hours can be used to work on assignments. Furthermore, the course is taught by two lecturers and is very well-balanced and managed. Then, the assessment is based on 4 assignments done in groups of 4 and a final 20-minute oral exam. The assignments and lectures are based on a book recommended by the lecturers at the beginning of the course. I really personally really liked this course as it provided me with a thorough understanding of turbulence and really helped me with the turbulence modelling course. Moreover, the course is taught with a good pace and the lecturers explain everything very clearly.

* **Probabilistic Methods in Wind Energy (46500 - 5 ECTS):**This course gives a general overview of probabilistic methods (statistics …) but also delves into some simple machine learning models. The course is very hands-on: The lectures are split into a presentation and a part where you will work on prepared jupyter notebooks where you will have to “fill the gaps”. In the later sessions, more time is given for questions about the assignments. The grade is built out of 3 group assignments, a group project and an individual oral examination. The  assignments are generally very close to the stuff you were working on in the lectures. The final project is close to the assignment as well, but differs from the assignments in the way that you have less guidance (or more freedom :) )  to choose the topics and the methods used. Lastly, the oral exam is usually an individual presentation of the group project. The lecturers are quite helpful and approachable.
* **Experimental Fluid Mechanics (41822 - 5 ECTS):** This course is a three-week elective course, which takes place in January. It gives an introduction to measuring techniques for determining velocity, flow properties, pressure, temperature etc. for fluids under stationary as well as non-stationary conditions. This is done by providing basic measurement theory and also gives examples on how to physically interpret measurement results. Besides the theory, you obtain practical experience in the laboratory. You get to perform a PIV experiment (Particle Image Velocimetry), an LDA experiment (Laser Doppler Anemometry), a flow visualisation of your own choice and wind tunnel measurements. You also get to visit the Poul la Cour wind tunnel. The course assessment is based on the hand-in of a flow visualisation experiment, and two posters about two of the larger experiments. Furthermore, a short oral presentation on one of the posters is given in the last week. Based on this, there is only a passing or failing grade. This course was really nice to obtain some hand-on experience in the laboratory and explore the more experimental side of fluid mechanics, which provides a nice variation with the more theoretical courses during the 13-week semester period.

## 2nd semester - TU Delft

### Mandatory courses

* **Fundamentals of Aeroelasticity (AE4ASM506 - 3 ECTS):** A course that in 2022-23 was taught in TU Delft's 2nd Quarter (while EWEM students are still at DTU). Thus this course has to be online by watching the lectures back from 2021-22. The online lecture material is of high quality and is available in full-length lectures or short-form videos. The course is quite tough for those who do not have a background in aerospace, but more doable for those who have done the aerospace bachelor. The course is very theoretical, with 1 assignment and 1 written exam.
* **Ethics and Enginering for Aerospace Enginering (WM0324LR - 3 ECTS):**
* **Wind Turbine Aeroelasticity (AE4W21-14 - 2 ECTS):**
* **Flow Measurement Techniques (AE4180 - 3 ECTS):**
* **Rotor / Wake Aerodynamics (AE4135 - 4 ECTS):**
* **Site Conditions for Wind Turbine Design (AE4W13 - 3 ECTS):**
* **Wind Turbine Design (AE4W09 - 5 ECTS):**

### Elective courses

* **Fluid Structure Interaction ( - 4ECTS)**
* Official Information: https://studiegids.tudelft.nl/a101\_displayCourse.do?course\_id=60864
* Prerequisites: MATLAB/Python
* This course provides a comprehensive overview of FSI, covering the basics of fluid and solid mechanics, and exploring the numerical issues that arise when coupling fluid-structure models. Students will learn the Finite Volume Discretization of fluids, the Arbitrary Eulerian Lagragian formulation for moving meshes, and the time integration issues of the coupled problem. Additionally, the course explores the challenges of sharing forces and displacements across the interface between the fluid and the structural mesh. The course focuses on the algorithmic aspects and provides the necessary background to choose (and motivate) the appropriate methodologies to simulate an FSI problem using a partitioned solution strategy in a robust and efficient manner. It consists of 7 lectures, 3 practical assignments in Matlab that will run during the course and an oral examination. The practical assignments can be done in groups of 3 students. The assignments provide an illustration to the theory and provide an opportunity to explore/experience several concepts and their properties. Assessment is done via 3 take-home assignments in Matlab (40% of the grade) and an oral exam. The exam comprises of a presentation (~15min) on either one of the topics described in the lectures or about a scientific paper related to FSI (this offers 0.5 points in the final grade) and a Q&A (~30min) on the content of the course and the presentation.

* **Fundamentals of Aeroacoustics (AE4260A - 2 ECTS) (Quarter 2 course!!):** An interesting course if you want to specialise in wind turbine noise. This course is taught by Francesco Avallone and Damiano Casalino. Francesco put a lot of emphasis on understanding the physics and supporting that with equations, while Damiano is far more focused on the math. The course covers the basics of aeroacoustics, such as the underlying physics, acoustic analogies and the different types of mathematical sources. It also covers airfoil self noise mechanisms and propeller noise. There is a large group assignment which involves using the Dassault Systemes Simulia suite and investigating analytical models for airfoil self noise. The exam is an oral exam that covers the lectures and also the assignment. Overall, the course was interesting, but it requires a bit more work than what 2 ECTS is worth. *Just make sure you have access to lecture recordings, it will be a challenge to successfully take this one otherwise.*

* **Experimental Applications of Aeroacoustics (AE4260B - 2 ECTS):** This course is the follow up of the Fundamentals course. Danielle is a very energetic teacher but also very chaotic . The course covers again the basics of acoustics. It further covers the working principles of microphones and the basics of beamforming. There is a lab exercise with a report that is interesting to do, but takes way more effort than it should have. If you liked fundamentals, go for it!

* **Engineering Optimization: Concepts and Applications (ME46060 - 3 ECTS):** A very interesting course covering the general concepts of optimisation as you encounter them in engineering. It is taught by a fun teaching pair with a clear passion for the subject. The course has a nice structure with non-mandatory exercises that help you keep up with the course content and provide you with some good hands-on experience with the concepts (they're worth it because you get bonus points). It is heavily focused on mechanical engineering though, so it was sometimes hard to image how to apply everything to aerodynamics. In the end you have to do a small optimisation project for the full grade. It is very hard to combine this course with the heavy workload in Q4, so keep that in mind! There is a second deadline for the project in September, so it could be done during summer.

* **Advanced Aircraft Noise Modelling and Measurements (AE4463P - 3 ECTS) (Quarter 2 course with option to take in Q3-5):** If you can't get enough of acoustics stuff, this course is a great supplementary course to the aeroacoustics pair. It can also be a very nice stand-alone course. Mirjam normally teaches this course in Q2, but if you ask her, you can take this any time of the year really. The course is organised around 5 assignments where you analyse real microphone measurements. The 5 assignment topics are: signal analysis, signal simulation and discrete Fourier transforms, aircraft noise modeling, 1D beamforming, and 2D beamforming. The course is focused on aircraft (the name kind of gives that away), but a lot of this can be applied to any field that involves noise measurements.

## 3rd semester - DTU

### Mandatory courses (You have to choose one of these)

* **Loads, Aerodynamics and Control of Wind Turbines (46320 - 10 ECTS):** Always referred to as LAC. Taught by Jenni Rinker, who is an amazing teacher. The course involves HAWC2 which is super relevant for thesis and in industry, job interviewers really like people who know it. Only reason to start hesitating is if your are a MAC user. There are easy weekly assignments and the final exam is nice as well (despite being late).

* **Wind Turbine Measurement Techniques (46400 - 10 ECTS):** Way better than LAC :P This course is all about experimental techniques. Setting up wind measurements, power curve validation, noise measurements and turbine loads are just a few of the topics that are covered by this course. Mike is the most passionate and kind teacher you can have who has a lot of experience. The stuff that Mike doesn't know is taught by other experts at DTU, which is a huge plus. The fact that it's a small group of students makes it much more fun. The assessment is done through 7 assignments and an exam. The assignments each cover a lecture topic through the analysis of real data (from the V52 turbine at Risø) and the exam is all about explaining the principles. You also get to climb the Vestas V52 turbine at the Risø campus!

### Elective courses

* **Advanced CFD (41316 - 5 ECTS):** While technically a follow-up course of CFD and Applied CFD (which are in the spring semester), you can do this one without major issue. It teaches advanced topics, such as multi-phase flow, CFD optimisation and combustion; within the framework of Siemens' Star-CCM+ software. The assessment is through 3 or 4 very on-topic assignments with great support from the teacher. You get good feedback along the way and the teacher makes sure you have comments before handing in the next assignment. There is no exam, which is a plus for your thesis work. The experience you get in Star-CCM+ is also very relevant in industry (thesis with company, hint hint).

## 4th Semester - Thesis (45 ECTS)

The whole 4th semester is dedicated to your thesis. You start on November 1st while finishing the DTU semester, with a strict thesis deadline on June 31st. Make sure to balance the workload well during the second semester, because you have to put in the hours. During the thesis work, you also have to take a single last mandatory course:

* **Research Methodologies (Mandatory, AE4020 - 2 ECTS):** Do this course during your literature study. It teaches you useful things to know when you get started, like how to do a literature review and how to organise your research. There is just an assignment, which boils down to a summary of your literature review from your thesis. There is a deadline in each quarter, with the recommendation to hand it in in the second one (January) so you have a second chance if you need it.

### At university

Finding a topic at either TU Delft or DTU is mostly an exercise in socialising. Talk to professors to see what's relevant and ask around if PhD's or researchers have topics. The second semester is very important if you want to come to Delft for the last semester, so start talking!

If socialising is not your thing, or if lectures have left you uninspired, there are other options :-) At TU Delft, there is a Brightspace page "Wind Energy - proposed master thesis projects" where staff post things they have come up with. You have to enrol in this, just search for it on the Brightspace catalog. At DTU, keep an eye out for the thesis catalogue (published in November for the Master thesis event). The TU Delft topics are usually too much for EWEM (because an AE thesis is more ECTS...) while the DTU topics are often quite small (because their thesis is usually 30 ECTS...), so talk to your supervisors to balance this. It is recommended to have your topic chosen by October, so you can start finalising things with your supervisors.

As you know, you need 2 supervisors: one at TU Delft, one at DTU. The supervisor at TU Delft has to be from the Aerospace Engineering Faculty, but can be from a department other than Wind Energy (Aircraft noise and climate effects, for example). The one at DTU has to be from the Wind and Energy systems department, otherwise you should talk to Marianne, as there are some special rules for people outside wind energy. You can have more than 2 supervisors, if you want a wider range of expertise (or if multiple people are interested...). Make sure the role of each supervisor is well established at the start, so you don't have conflicts.

### With a Company

Start talking to companies early, as there is quite a bit of paperwork. Talk to Marianne, Wei and Taeseong about this a lot. ***SOMEONE WRITE ABOUT THIS!!***!

### Note on the DTU Deadline

The DTU deadline is quite strict, in that you need to do paperwork to have it extended or delayed. If you have health or personal things getting in your way, talk to Marianne Arbirk, as there are procedures for extensions in those cases. If you have to retake a January course, Marianne is also able to get you a delayed start- and end- date. In the latter case, you have the same amount of time to do your thesis, just shifted a few months.