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MSc Programme
Aerospace Engineering
Track
Aerodynamics & Wind
Energy (AWE)
The MSc track Aerodynamics
and Wind Energy offers a
challenging program which
covers fundamental principles
and real-world applications
TU Delft is home to one of the leading academic
programmes in aerospace engineering and
technology in Europe. The aerospace Masters
programme prepares students to respond
effectively and rapidly to the needs in the
aerospace sector with solutions that are
innovative, technically feasible and
commercially viable. The programme has a
distinctly international focus and enhances the
basic competencies that have been acquired
in the pre-master education to a higher level in
terms of knowledge, critical reflection, making
judgments and working independently.
Students have access to state-of-the-art test
and laboratory facilities that allow them to
acquire engineering skills that can directly
be used in advanced industrial applications.
To learn to develop as an independently-thinking,
professionally-oriented, innovative engineer and
researcher, the study requires specialisation.
Each student therefore concentrates on a specific
field of expertise in Aerospace Engineering, a track.
The Masters programme in Aerospace Engineering
offers five tracks: Aerodynamics & Wind Energy,
Flight Performance & Propulsion, Control & Operations,
Space Flight, and Aerospace Structures & Materials.
MSc Track structure
Each track of the MSc programme has a common structure
and comprises core, profile and elective courses,
a literature study, an internship and the MSc thesis.
The core courses enable the student to develop a broad
view on the field of expertise. The profile courses narrow
the expertise down to a particular subfield and enable
the student to develop a thorough and detailed
knowledge of that field. The elective courses provide
flexibility to specialise in a particular area of expertise
or to add multidisciplinary elements, repair educational
deficiencies or address a personal interest. Students can
choose to study some of their elective courses abroad.
In the Aerodynamics and Wind Energy track, the core courses
consist of: Viscous flows, CFD I, Aeroelasticity, Rotor
Aerodynamics, Ethics for Aerospace Engineers and Research
Methodologies.
The literature study is a preparatory assignment directly related
to the subsequent thesis subject. Its aim is to impart specialist
theoretical knowledge and so help the student to achieve
maximum depth when they do their thesis project. In the
three-month internship at Dutch or international institutes or
industries students acquire professional skills that are different
from those taught in the classroom. Besides the assignment set
by the host company each student gets an assignment about the
engineering profession and about a personal reflection on the
personal performance in the company. The MSc concludes with
a thesis project, which consists of an in-depth research or an
expert design assignment in the specific field chosen by the
student.
Profiles
Students will have an option to graduate within one of the two
thematic profiles:
I. The Aerodynamics profile courses focus on the physics of
aerodynamic flows, the experimental techniques used to
measure them, and the computational techniques used to
predict them. The Aerodynamics profile courses are:
Experimental Simulations, Aircraft Aerodynamics, CFD II,
Gasdynamics and Flow Measurement Techniques. After
successful completion of the profile program the student
will:
Have an advanced knowledge of viscous and compressible
flows, and of the influence of flow phenomena on external
flow aerodynamics
Be familiar with the design of wind tunnel experiments,
and have experience with modern measurement
techniques including laser Doppler anemometry, infra-red
thermography, and particle image velocimetry.
Be familiar with principles of advanced computational
methods, including methods with mimetic properties,
those designed for efficient time marching. The student
will also be familiar with methods designed for the
computation of high-speed and turbulent flows, and for
error estimation and uncertainty quantification.
II. The Wind Energy profile focuses on methods and systems of
energy extraction from wind. Both wind turbine and kite
power systems are addressed. The Wind Energy profile
courses are: Kite Power and Propulsion, Wind Turbine
Aeroelasticity, Wind Turbine Design and Site Conditions for
Wind Turbine Design. After successful completion of the MSc
programme the student:
Will have in-depth knowledge of low speed aerodynamics
and its application to energy extracting devices such as
wind turbines and kites
Will have thorough systems knowledge regarding these
energy extraction devices
Will be able to apply advanced analysis and design
techniques in at least one of the following areas: wind
turbines, wind farms or kite power systems
Will have insight in related disciplines such as boundary
layer meteorology, structural design and dynamics of
structures, control and operations
MSc track overview Aerospace Engineering.
Core Courses
( 18 EC)
No choice
Profile Courses
( 13 EC)
No choice
Elective
Courses
+/- 15 EC
Choice of
courses in
consultation
with Track
Coordinator
Literature
Study
(12 EC)
Research
Methodologies
(2 EC)
18 EC
Internship
42 EC
MSc Thesis project
Academic staff
Name: Prof Fulvio Scarano
Role: Head of Aerodynamics section
Name: Prof Gerard van Bussel
Role: Head of Wind Energy section
Name: Dr. Steven Hulshoff
Role: Aerodynamics profile coordinator
Name: Dr. Wim Bierbooms
Role: Wind Energy profile coordinator
Job perspective
Aerodynamics and Wind Energy graduates with a specialty in
Aerodynamics are naturally well qualified to work in the design
of air and land transportation systems. However, given their
knowledge of flow physics and experience with experimental
and computational techniques, there are also opportunities
for aerodynamics graduates in the large number of industries
where flows play an important role.
Examples include offshore engineering, resource extraction,
and process engineering, to name a few.
Since the Aerodynamics specialty has substantial fundamental
component, graduates with a specialty in aerodynamics are
also well prepared for careers in pure or applied research.
For Aerodynamics and Wind Energy graduates with a specialty
in Wind Energy, the recent rapid expansion in the number
and size of wind turbines has of course resulted in many
opportunities in the wide diversity of fields that make up the
wind energy industry. For example, opportunities exist in:
Wind turbine manufacturing and engineering
Wind farm development
Consultancy
Financial and other services
Research and academia
Comput Mech (2008) 41:371378 373
3 Multiscale residual-based formulation
of the incompressible NavierStokes equations
employing the advective form
We consider a direct-sum decomposition of V into coarse-
scale and ne-scale subspaces, V
h
and V

, respectively,
V = V
h
V

(8)
V
h
is assumed to be a nite-dimensional space, which will
be identied later with the space of functions with which we
actually compute. One obtains a unique decomposition in
(8) with the aid of a linear projection operator P, that gives
U
h
= PU V
h
and U

= (I P)U V

from a given
U V (see [23] for details).
Byrestrictingthe weightingspace toV
h
in(1) andemploy-
ing the direct-sum decomposition (8) for the solution space,
we obtain the equation system for the large scales, namely:
Find U
h
= {u
h
, p
h
} V
h
such that W
h
=
_
w
h
, q
h
_
V
h
,
B
_
W
h
, U
h
+ U

_
=
_
W
h
, F
_
. (9)
(9) indicates precisely the manner in which the large scales
depend on U

= {u

, p

}.
Combining (2) and (9), we obtain: Find U
h
V
h
, such
that W
h
V
h
,
_
w
h
,
u
h
t
_

_
w
h
, u
h
u
h
_

+
_
q
h
, u
h
_

_
w
h
, p
h
_

+
_

s
w
h
, 2
s
u
h
_

_
w
h
, f
_

+
_
w
h
,
u

t
_

_
w
h
, u
h
u

_
w
h
, u

u
h
_

_
w
h
, u

+
_
q
h
, u

_
w
h
, p

+
_

s
w
h
, 2
s
u

= 0 (10)
For purposes of modeling the ne scales we make the simpli-
fying assumption
_
w
h
,
u

t
_

= 0. We note, however, that it

has been shown in [15] that it is benecial to incorporate this
effect in modeling the ne scales. The term
_

s
w
h
, 2
s
u

may be omitted by selecting a projector that enforces the

orthogonality of the coarse and ne scales in the semi-norm
induced by this term (see, e.g., [2]).
We turn our attention to the convective terms in (10).
Assuming incompressibility of the velocity eld, namely,
(u
h
+ u

) = 0, we compute:

_
w
h
, u
h
u
h
_

_
w
h
, u
h
u

_
w
h
, u

u
h
_

_
w
h
, u

=
_
w
h
, u
h
(u
h
+ u

)
_

_
w
h
, u

u
h
_

_
w
h
, u

=
_
w
h
, (u
h
+ u

) u
h
_

_
w
h
, u

u
h
_

_
w
h
, u

(11)
At this point we assume that is partitioned into a set of
subdomains, such as nite elements or NURBS elements,
and on this partition we have a nite dimensional space of
functions with local support that forms our approximation
space for U
h
and W
h
. Let x = {xi }
d
i =1
, denote the coordi-
nates of element K in physical space, and let = {i }
d
i =1
,
denote the coordinates of element K in parametric space. Let
x = x() : K K be a continuously differentiable map
with a continuously differentiable inverse.
We model the ne scales as in [6]:
U

R(U
h
), (12)
where is a 4 4 matrix (in three spatial dimensions) and
R(U
h
) is a 4 1 vector that collects momentum and conti-
nuity residuals of the NavierStokes equations,
R(U
h
) =
_
r
T
M
(u
h
, p
h
), rC(u
h
)
_
T
, (13)
in which
r M
_
u
h
, p
h
_
=
u
h
t
+u
h
u
h
+p
h
u
h
f , (14)
rC(u
h
) = u
h
(15)
We dene as follows:
= di ag(M, M, M, C), (16)
where
M =
_
4
t
2
+ u
h
Gu
h
+CI
2
G : G
_
1/2
, (17)
C = (g M g)
1
, (18)
with G a second rank metric tensor
G =

x
T

x
, (19)
1 3
Figure: Comput Mech (2008) 41:371378
10
1
10
2
10
3
y
+
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
u
+
4400
E[ | z] 2

, p = 0
z
v
3
zv
Research programmes and
internships
Although it is most common for students to choose a topic
from the research group associated with their profile, they
may choose from the other groups provided that they have an
appropriate background for the topic.
Research in the Aerodynamics group.
The Aerodynamics group is engaged in both fundamental
and applied research related to the understanding and
control of aerodynamic flows. The groups strengths lie
in the development of new experimental and computational
techniques and the investigation of complex flow phenomena.
Concerning experimental techniques, the aerodynamics group
is at the forefront of the development of particle image
velocimetry (PIV) including its application to both unsteady
and high-speed flows. This includes the development of
methods to derive forces from PIV data, and which optimally
combine experimental results with numerical flow simulations.
The group is also very active in the development of new
methods for numerical flow simulation. This includes
methods which exactly preserve flow kinetic energy and
helicity, optimal methods for the large-eddy simulation of
turbulent flows and efficient techniques for fluid-structure
simulations. In addition, methods for propagating input
uncertainty are being investigated, along with Bayesian
techniques for turbulence model selection and calibration.
Finally, the aerodynamics group is engaged in the
characterisation of several complex fluid phenomena for
application to flow control. Examples include the effect of
micro-ramps on shock-boundary layer interactions, sound
production induced by trailing-edge turbulence interactions
and the effects of low-frequency and nano-pulse plasma
actuators on boundary-layer transition.
MSc projects can be carried out in all these disciplines both
in the Aerodynamics Lab as well as in collaboration with
industry. Examples of possible thesis projects can be found
on the website.
Msc student Jasper Kreeft
From 2005 to 2007 I followed the Aerodynamics Master program, specializing in
Computational Fluid Dynamics. After an internship in Chile working on wind
tunnel lay-out designs, I returned to the Aerodynamics Laboratory in Delft to
perform my Master thesis research on compressible two-fluid flow modeling.
This was performed in collaboration with the Center of Mathematics and
Computer Science (CWI) in Amsterdam.
What attracted me most to the Aerodynamics Master was the combination of
both applied and fundamental topics in its course program, and the mixture of
numerical and experimental expertise at the Aerodynamics Laboratory. In my
opinion the Aerodynamics Laboratory is a unique location which has allowed
me to deepen as well as broaden my knowledge of fluid dynamics. After having
worked for a year at the National Aerospace Laboratory in Amsterdam, I returned
to the Aerodynamics Laboratory to start my PhD research on
structure-preserving (mimetic) numerical techniques for, but not
limited to, fluid dynamics.
Now, in my current role as fluid flow researcher at Shell R&D,
I am involved in the computational modeling of multiphase flows
in production facilities, turbulent reacting flows in reactors and
fluid-structure interactions in offshore platforms. I find the
knowledge of fluid dynamics, fluid-structure interactions and
numerical analysis I obtained during my years at the Aerodynamics
Laboratory is still of great value and used on a daily basis.
Jasper Kreeft
(The Netherlands)
Research in the Wind Energy group
Rotor Aerodynamics
The group has a unique wind tunnel to test model rotors: the
Open Jet Facility (OJF). Furthermore, the group uses the low
speed low turbulence tunnel (LSLT) which is perfect for the
design of airfoils for wind turbine application. We make
extensive use of advanced experimental techniques such as
laser sheet stereo PIV and CTA hot wire anemometry. We have
our own rotor aerodynamic design and analysis tools and use
commercial CFD packages. Not surprisingly, the research is
often a combination of experiments and analysis.
Wind Turbine Design
Since offshore wind power is the most demanding application,
the development of design methodologies is focusing on
offshore wind power stations. Two design aspects prevail in this
research: to keep the loads on the offshore wind turbines as
low as possible, and to aim for a maximum availability of the
wind power station with low maintenance requirements.

Kite Power
The design of a kite power system is highly connected to its
dynamic behaviour. Important aspects are operational optimiza-
tion and economic feasibility. In 2012 the kite-power group
demonstrated the fully automated operation of a kite power
system. The current research addresses some limitations of that
control system. Other research areas are the development of a
reliable kite-power system-state estimator and the development
of a fast, adaptive controller for the ground-station.
The Wind Energy research group collaborates with, among
others, ECN, Ecofys, Vestas, Siemens and Makani Power.
Examples of MSc projects are:
Experimental analysis of near and transitional wind turbine
wake using stereo PIV
Increased energy yield using the smart rotor
Power output of offshore wind farms in relation to
atmospheric stability
Structural optimization of multi-megawatt, offshore Vertical
Axis Wind Turbine rotors
Aero-elastic analysis of a large airborne wind turbine
Kite power for developing countries
For further information
More information on the MSc profile
Aerodynamics can be obtained at:
http://www.lr.tudelft.nl/aerodynamics
You can also contact the Aerodynamics profile coordinator:
Dr. Steven Hulshoff
E S.J.Hulshoff@tudelft.nl
T +31 15 27 81538
Room number: HSL 0.36
More information on the MSc profile
Wind Energy can be obtained at:
http://www.windenergy.lr.tudelft.nl/
You can also contact the Wind Energy profile coordinator:
Dr.ir. Wim Bierbooms
E W.A.A.M.Bierbooms@tudelft.nl
T +31 15 27 82097
Room number: 5.21
International students are recommended to visit:
http://home.tudelft.nl/en/study.
All questions regarding international admissions should be
directed to our international office:
E internationaloffice@tudelft.nl
Admission requirements
Entrants should hold:
a Dutch BSc degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical
Engineering, Maritime Engineering, Electrical
Engineering, Civil Engineering, Physics, Applied Physics,
or Physics & Astronomy
a Dutch degree of a University of Applied Sciences in
Aeronautics, Aviation, Mechanical Engineering, Maritime
Engineering, Civil Engineering, Design & Innovation.
These students have to complete a special bridging
programme prior to enrolment on the MSc.
A BSc degree in Military Systems & Technology of the
Netherlands Defense Academy (NLDA). Further details are
available on the website.
International students should hold a university BSc degree
in a subject closely related to Aerospace Engineering with
good grades for key courses, a Bachelors Cumulative Grade
Point Average (CGPA) of at least 75% of the scale
maximum, and a Proof of English language proficiency.
Further details about the admission with a BSc degree from
a non-Dutch university are available on the TU Delft
website (http://www.tudelft.nl/en/study/master-of-
science/master-programmes/aerospace-engineering/
application-and-admission).
Permission for doing research within this track of this
Master is partly dependent on a screening under the Missile
and Nuclear Research Exemption scheme.
For more information:
http://www.government.nl/issues/education/exemption-
certain-engineering-or-nuclear-related-courses-of-study
http://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/hoger-
onderwijs/vraag-en-antwoord/waarom-heb-ik-een-
ontheffing-nodig-voor-bepaalde-technische-nucleaire-
studies.html