Scott Larwood Doctoral Student (PhD completed March 2009) Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering University of California, Davis Department Address: Mech/Aero Engr. Dept. University of California One Shields Avenue Davis, CA 95616-5294 Phone: (209) 546-0627 Email: goes to UC Davis search Curriculum Vitae in PDF   Education Ph.D. (2009) Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, UC Davis M.S. (1993) Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University B.S. (1988) Aeronautical Engineering, California Polytechnic State University

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Professional Experience

August 2007 - Present

Visiting Lecturer, University of the Pacific.  Currently teaching vibrations course in the Mechanical Engineering Department.

September 2006 - Present

Sole Proprietor, Purlwind Consulting.  Engineer consulting business for aerospace and energy sectors.  I am a California-licensed professional engineer, mechanical branch, license number M33713. Current projects include a Public Interest Energy Research (PIER) grant to develop modeling for curved wind-turbine blades.

January 2004 - July 2007

Graduate Student Researcher, UC Davis, Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering.  Worked under faculty advisor Professor Case Van Dam for various projects in the California Wind Energy Collaborative and the California Energy Commission. Investigation of safety setbacks for permitting of wind turbines. Development of a model for the rotor fragment risk. Study of obstruction lighting requirement for wind turbines.

December 2004 - December 2005

Engineer, Dynamic Design Engineering.  Member of a design team working on a swept wind turbine blade for Knight and Carver's Low Wind Speed Technology (LWST) contract with the Department of Energy. Developing a wind turbine dynamic model with the swept blade using the aeroelastic codes FAST and ADAMS. Video of swept blade here.

August 2001 - October 2003

Test and Loads Engineer, GE Wind Energy (formerly Enron Wind).  Run aeroelastic load simulations of wind turbines for site- specific climatic conditions in wind farms.  Verify fatigue life of turbines for various wind farm configurations.  Predict loads for various off-design operating conditions.  Develop test plans, install instrumentation, and conduct test campaigns for wind turbine loads and performance.

June  1997 - July  2001

Test Engineer, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, National Wind Technology Center.  Responsible for field testing of various projects and a member of the test team on blade structural testing projects.  Responsible for writing test plans, developing and installing instrumentation systems, maintaining mechanical and electrical systems, taking data and analyzing the results.

January  1997 - June 1997

Faculty Research Engineer, University of Maryland, Department of Aerospace Engineering.  Responsible for the operation of two research laboratories: Smart Structures Lab and Rotor Hover Test Stand.  Worked on rotor test with active flap and design of an anechoic chamber for rotor aeroacoustic testing.

November 1996 - December 1996

Powder Filling Engineer, Inhale Therapeutics (now known as Nektar).  Designed and tested new concepts for packaging of 2 mg doses of dry powder of 1-5 micron particle size.  Work was in support of a new deep lung drug delivery system.

April 1996 - July 1996

Mechanical Engineer, Avocet.  Responsible for the design of a new bicycle computer with altimeter. Established schedule and budget. Developed user interface. Worked on mechanical design and testing in support of the new design. Researched methods for determining altitude.

June  1995- April 1996

Test Engineer, Kenetech Windpower. Responsible for Acoustic and Load Testing of wind turbines. Determine test requirements from designers and analysts, write test plans, procure instrumentation, work with technicians to instrument hardware checkout and maintain instrumentation system, acquire data, assess data quality, and write data reports.

February 1989 - June 1995

Aerospace Engineer, NASA Ames Research Center. Primary duty as a Test Director in the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex. Generally responsible for the safe and efficient conduct of wind tunnel tests. Work with researchers to establish requirements, develop and track a schedule. Write test specific operating procedures, oversee and review model design documentation that establishes safe operating limits. Oversee model buildup and system checkouts, and direct the wind tunnel test. Also worked as a wind tunnel mechanic on a 2-month temporary assignment. Also in Engineering development of Spacelab Life Sciences payload experiments. Was assigned to joint French/American Rhesus Project. Primary responsibility was as a hardware engineer for the psychomotor test system experiment, essentially a video game that the rhesus monkeys would play during shuttle missions.

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Technical Interests

Research interests include:

Wind Turbine Structural Dynamics

Current research includes:

Curved Wind Turbine Blades for Load Control - PhD dissertation page here

Wind Energy Permitting Issues

Wind Turbine Rotor Fragment Risk

 

Also see links to California Wind Energy Collaborative

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Professional Activities and Honors

NREL Staff Award 2000 Outstanding Team- Unsteady Aerodynamics Test Team

NREL Employee of the Month, August 1998

NFAC Research Operations Branch Person of the Year for Rotorcraft, 1992 and 1993.

First Human-Powered Helicopter Hover, National Aeronautic Association Recognition (US Chapter of FAI), 1989

interview regarding Cal Poly Da Vinci project at humanpoweredhelicopters.org

Cal Poly Aeronautical Engineering Department Honorary Senior Student, 1988

American Helicopter Society’s Vertical Flight Foundation Scholarship, 1987

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Selected Publications

1. Dynamic Analysis Tool Development for Advanced Geometry Wind Turbine Blades, Ph.D. thesis, University of California at Davis, 2009. Dissertation page here.
   

2.  “Permitting Setback Requirements for Wind Turbines in California.” CEC-500-2005-184. Davis, CA; California Wind Energy Collaborative, November 2006; 80 p.

3. “Swept Wind Turbine Blade Aeroelastic Modeling for Loads and Dynamic Behavior,” Windpower 2006, 4-7 June 2006, Pittsburgh, PA, 4-7 June 2006; 17 p.

4.  “FAA Obstruction Lighting Standards for Wind Energy Plants.” CEC-500-2005-180. Davis, CA; California Wind Energy Collaborative, December 2005; 30 p. See also FAA report for further information.

5. "Controlled Velocity Testing of an 8-kW Wind Turbine". AWEA Windpower 2001, Washington, D.C., June 4-7, 2001. NREL/CP-500-30299. Golden, CO; National Renewable Energy Laboratory; 17 p.

6.  “Wind Turbine Wake Measurements in the Operating Region of a Tail Vane.” A Collection of the 2001 ASME Wind Energy Symposium Technical Papers Presented at the 39th American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Reno, NV, 8-11 January 2001. NREL/CP-500-29132. Golden, CO; National Renewable Energy Laboratory; 10 p.

7.  “Comprehensive Testing of NedWind 12-meter Wind Turbine Blades at NREL.” A Collection of the 2000 ASME Wind Energy Symposium Technical Papers Presented at the 38th American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Reno, NV, 10-13 January 2000. NREL/CP-500-27497. Golden, CO; National Renewable Energy Laboratory; 9 p.

8. “Measurement of Truck Cab Flow in Support of Wind Turbine Testing,” NREL TP-500-25714. Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, November 1998; 11 p.

9. “Dynamic Characterization of the AWT-26 Turbine for Variable Speed Operation,” NREL TP-500-24919. Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, July 1998; 13 p.

10. “Aerodynamic Design of the DaVinci Human-Powered Helicopter,” Presented at the American Helicopter Society Vertical Lift Design Conference, San Francisco, CA, 17-19 January 1990; 19 p.

 

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Last modified: 29 May 2009