NHMU Scientist in the Spotlight: Marc Calaf
Natural History Museum of Utah (NHMU) Life Gallery – Naturalist Lab
Friday, May 6, 2016 – 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm
As an alternative to burning fossil fuels, wind power is plentiful, renewable, widely distributed, and produces no greenhouse gas emissions during operation. Join U Mechanical Engineering Assistant Professor, Wind Energy Expert Marc Calaf to discover how wind turbines work, how they interact with the surrounding atmosphere, and what can be done to optimize wind power output. Then, try your hand at wind engineering. Design your own wind farm by arranging tiny wind turbines downstream of each other or side-by-side to see how wind patterns evolve.
Left, representation of the CAD drawing of a horizontal axis wind turbine; right, 3D printed horizontal and vertical wind turbine model
Portable wind turbine model for outreach educational activities
Use of liquid nitrogen for flow visualization (Credit: Jo Savage Photography: @savagedangerwolf)
3D printing of a vertical axis wind turbine model (Credit: Jo Savage Photography: @savagedangerwolf)