News & Media
French intern “flips” for Unisa
My name is Mehdi Benaissa and I am from France studying for my Diplôme d’Ingénieur at the National Institute of Applied Sciences (INSA) at Strasbourg. I am very interested in renewable energy because I think that is the future of engineering. During my studies in France, we are expected to do an overseas internship programme and I decided to come to South Africa and Unisa to work on a research project with Prof Wei Hua Ho at the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering during July and August 2016.
Khaled Youssef, Mehdi Benaissa, and Prof Wei Hua Ho “on the top of the world” at the second highest point in Johannesburg.
The project is about analysing bio-inspired airfoils for wind turbine blades using CFD tools. The airfoil used was based on the humpback whale flipper. The humpback whale is extremely mobile for its size and uses wing-like flippers for sharp banking and turning. It has been hypothesised and shown from previous studies that the enhanced performance is due to the tubercles on the leading edge of the flipper. These superior characteristics might also be applied to the design of wind turbine blades to improve efficiency and performance. Biomimetics are a good way for innovating and we have a great deal to learn from nature.
For this project, I used the commercial CFD package Ansys Fluent together with the HPC facilities at Unisa to design my airfoil and simulations.
In addition to my work directly, I am also very impressed with the laboratory facilities here in the department. I am happy that I have had the opportunity to be here and to learn new skills.
Finally, I must add that I really appreciate the melting pot of different cultures here in the university and the department with people from all around the world, including a visiting researcher from Egypt, Khaled Youssef. I would like to thank especially Prof Ho for his kindness and his good advice to me. Also everybody who I have interacted with for making my stay here extremely comfortable, and special thanks to Prof Bilal Patel, Shahid Ansari, and Aliu Adeniyi Adeleke from the Department of Chemical Engineering and MAPS for going to the mosque with me every day.
Publish date: 2016/10/17
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