Mayank Chetan

PhD, Mechanical Engineering

Offshore Wind Group

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Biography

Mayank Chetan is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

His current research focus is on the aero-elastic instability of wind turbine structures, turbine loads analysis under extreme conditions and techno-economic analysis of offshore structures. Additionally, he has worked on the structural dynamics of extreme scale wind turbine blades and the development of tools required for the analysis of extreme scale wind turbine structures.

He defended his PhD in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas under the supervision of Dr. D Todd Griffith. Before joining graduate school, Mayank worked at Honda Motorcycle and Scooters India Pvt Ltd in Warranty Analysis. He was also involved in the research and development of electronic prototyping kits to help promote STEM education. During his free time he likes hiking in the Rocky Mountains and running unnecessary scientific computations on his home-made cluster.

Interests

Wind Energy
Aero-elasticity
Structural Dynamics
Loads Analysis
Load Control

Education

PhD in Mechanical Engineering, 2021
University of Texas at Dallas
BE in Mechanical Engineering, 2014
RV College of Engineering, Bangalore

Experience

Postdoctoral Researcher

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Apr 2022 – Present Boulder, Colorado

Aero-elastic Instability

Research Assistant

University of Texas at Dallas

Sep 2017 – Apr 2022 Richardson, Texas

Blade Structure Design:

Development of large wind turbine blades for SUMR (Segmented Ultralight Morphing Rotor) project funded by ARPA-e.
Structural design of a 20% scale (of 13.2MW) demonstration wind turbine at NREL.
Development of a multi-fidelity digital twin based on wide array of data from initial design, manufacturing and ground testing.
Investigation of aero-elastic instabilities like flutter in large wind turbine blade design.

Active Aerodynamic Control:

Development and optimization of 3.4MW, 10MW and 15MW turbine models including baseline controllers and detailed blade structures for reduction in LCOE using active aerodynamic controls (funded by ARPA-e under the OPEN 2018 program).

Tool Development:

Development of design tool called AutoNuMAD for large wind turbine blade structure research using MATLAB.
Development of a MALTAB-Simulink based environment to run OpenFAST loads analysis in parallel.

Communication

Experienced in presenting to funding agencies and working in large multi-disciplinary, dispersed teams.

Publications:

11 journal publications.
6 conference papers.
8 articles in preparation.

Design Engineer

Sahyadri Edu Dreamers R&D Pvt Ltd

Jul 2016 – Jul 2017 Mangalore, India

Dream Kit:

Product design for an electronic prototyping platform aimed elementary school children. Also collaborated with Industrial design partners for manufacturability study for mass production.

Administration:

Assisted in the making of company policies to conform to Government of India regulations on Startups.

Engineer E2

Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Pvt Ltd

Jul 2014 – Jul 2016 Bangalore, India

Warranty Analysis:

Streamlined analysis and countermeasure implementation procedures to minimize warranty claims leading to a 33% reduction in engine related warranty claims.

Continuous Variable Transmission:

Large project leader for a cross functional team to enhance the Continuous Variable Transmission (CVT) for Honda Activa, India’s largest selling two-wheeler vehicle. Proposed countermeasures lead to 60% reduction in pre-delivery warranty claims in the first month.

Global Honda Quality Standards(GHQS):

Defined and authored the Standard Operating Procedures for a newly established department of Market Quality and Engineering based on GHQS, a derivative of ISO 9001:2008.