They show its possible application in civil engineering structures such as bridges or buildings
A study by researchers from the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV), belonging to the Institute of Concrete Science and Technology (ICITECH), in collaboration with the Chalmers University of Technology Goteborg (Sweden), “promises to change the design of the structure of wind turbines” offering solutions between 8 and 15% ” more sustainable” than the traditional methods of these infrastructures.
The study -according to the University of Valencia – presents an “innovative and effective” method to optimize the design of the foundations of wind turbines, thus increasing the energy efficiency in their construction.
The results obtained, published in the journal “Structural Optimization and Multidisciplinary Optimization”, show its applicability in large and complex projects and its potential to be used in other civil structures.
“Our method makes it possible to design structures in a more sustainable way and to facilitate their construction, through software that can analyze different conditions and thus optimize the final work. It uses metamodels, such as Kriging, to increase the efficiency and reduce the computational cost of the optimization process”, explains Víctor Yepes, researcher at the ICITECH Institute of the Polytechnic University of Valencia.
In the study, a team from the Universitätä Politècnica de Valencia and Chalmers University of Technology applied the method to a real example of wind turbine foundations in Sweden.
“We have verified that we can get better plans with our proposal, just by digesting twenty instead of a thousand different plans. In addition, we have verified that these plans are more sustainable than conventional plans”, highlights Víctor Yepes, researcher at the ICITECH Institute of the Polytechnic University of Valencia.
Among the advantages of this “revolutionary method” is also a significant reduction in costs – both economic and computational – and time when designing the foundations of wind turbines.
Although this study focuses on the foundations of wind turbines, the system proposed by the Spanish and Swedish researchers can be applied to other structures used in engineering or civil construction.
In addition, the Kriging metamodeling technique is widely used in industry and can be applied to a variety of structural designs.
bridges or buildings
“Our work is very useful for the optimization of other civil engineering structures such as bridges or buildings.”
Furthermore, the proposed method could be applied in other fields such as the optimization of manufacturing processes or the development of new materials. In short, it is a new technique with great potential to address and solve various engineering design problems”, concludes Víctor Yepes.
The development of this method belongs to the HYDELIFE research project, funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER).
