INTEGRATE - Inverse Network Transformations for Efficient Generation of Robust Airfoil and Turbine Enhancements
Technology Description:
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will develop a novel wind turbine design capability that enables designers to explore advanced technology concepts at a lower cost. This capability will harness the power of a deep neural network (DNN)-based inverse design methodology. To overcome challenges with the use of traditional DNNs in this application, NREL will develop innovative techniques to sparsify the neural network using active subspaces that will ensure that the model is invertible and can quickly zoom in on relevant designs at minimal cost. The models will be trained using data from computational fluid dynamics simulations, running on NREL’s supercomputers, which in turn use machine learning assisted turbulence models to predict flow separation and stall observed in wind turbine flows.
Potential Impact:
DIFFERENTIATE aims to enhance the productivity of energy engineers in helping them to develop next-generation energy technologies. If successful, DIFFERENTIATE will yield the following benefits in ARPA-E mission areas: