GE engineers – led by GE Research Aerodynamics Engineer Jing Li – have been granted access to the Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee, through the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) competitive ALCC (Advanced Scientific Computing Research Leadership Computing Challenge) program.
The goal of this effort is to use supercomputer-driven simulations to conduct otherwise infeasible research. As part of the project, the GE team will work closely with research teams at NREL and ORNL to advance the ExaWind platform. One of the applications of the DOE’s Exascale Computing Project (ECP), ExaWind focuses on the development of computer software to simulate different wind farm and atmospheric flow physics. These simulations provide insights for engineers and scientists to better understand wind dynamics and their impact on wind farms.
The key focus of this supercomputing project will be to study coastal low-level jets, which produce a distinct wind velocity profile of potential importance to the design and operation of future wind turbines. Using the Summit supercomputer system, the GE team will run simulations to study and inform new ways of controlling and operating offshore turbines to best optimize wind production.
