The Energy theme covers:

Nuclear fusion energy technology

• Stress analysis and structural integrity assessment using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) of
  in vessel components, notably the DEMO divertor, reactor central solenoid and mechanical
  plant to be used for maintenance and reactor upgrading purposes.
• Assessment of the suitability of the Nuclear code RCC-MRx (Design and Construction
  Rules for mechanical components of nuclear installations : high-temperature, research and
  fusion reactors) to be used for monotonic and cyclic loading of fusion reactor components.
  The current analysis trend both in academia and industry is to use the elastic approach to
  mimic elastic plastic material behaviour. The elastic approach has many benefits but risks
  being over conservative and complicated to implement at times. In this work elastic and
  inelastic analyses are compared as applied to fusion reactors, with the aim to improve
  stress analysis and design approaches.

Wind Energy, through research on the following topics:

• Wind Turbine Aerodynamics where high fidelity computational models together with wind tunnel measurements are used to obtain a better insight to the unsteady local blade and wake flow phenomena experienced by yawed wind turbines and floating wind turbines subjected to significant wave induced platform motions.
• Wind measurement and modelling, with work carried out in close collaboration with the Institute for Sustainable Energy focussed mainly on wind resource assessment using measurements (cup-type anemometry and Lidar) and CFD.
• Fluid power transmission in offshore wind turbines, based on use of cold sea water from beneath thermocline formations which may be used for enhancing the performance of large-scale cooling processes.
• Micro-wind turbine design and performance testing.

Air conditioning, through research on the following topics: 

• the use of inverter technology and variable refrigerant flow air conditioning, performed through a series of experimental campaigns.
• experimental studies on the effects of voltage on the consumption of a domestic refrigerator
• experimental investigations on using a water cistern for dissipation of air conditioning load.  
• analytical and experimental investigations using variable air flow for an industrial cooling tower, aimed at reducing electrical consumption by the fans.

Funded projects

Structural Integrity assessment of DEMO fusion reactor mechanical components
Funded by: European Atomic Energy Community, EC-Euratom, EU Commission
Date: 2021 – 2025
Principal Investigators: Prof. Martin Muscat, Prof. Pierluigi Mollicone
Co-investigators: EUROfusion consortium members -link here
Project partners: EUROfusion consortium
Funding body: EU Commission, Project 101052200 — EUROfusion

Ph.D. project: Modelling the Self-Induced Cycle-to-Cycle Variations in the Aerodynamic Blade Loads of a Yawed Wind Turbine
Funded by: Scholarship by Libyan Government
Ph.D. student: Moutaz Elgammi
Date: 2013 - 2017
Supervisor: Tonio Sant

Ph.D. project Modelling and Analysis of Hydraulic Wind Turbines with Integrated Energy Storage
Funded by: MGSS Scholarship
Ph.D. student: Daniel Buhagiar
Date: 2014 - 2017
Supervisor: Tonio Sant

Development of a Prototype Wind Turbine System for Electrical Power Generation
Funded by: Ministry for Resources & Rural Affairs (MRRA)
Date: Oct 2010 - Sept 2012
Principal Investigator at UM: Tonio Sant
Co-investigators: Martin Muscat, Robert N. Farrigia, Cedric Caruana

Self Adjusting Torque Vertical Axis Wind Turbine - SATVAWT
Funded by: MCST - National Research & Innovation Programme 2011
Date: Oct 2011 - Sept 2015
Principal Investigator at UM: Pierluigi Mollicone
Co-investigators: Tonio Sant, Daniel Micallef
Project Coordinator and Partner: Econetique
Project Partners: Alurwind, Architectural Projects AP

Joint Ph.D. project with Faculty of Aerospace Sciences, TUDelft, 3D flows near a HAWT rotor: A dissection of blade and wake contributions
Funded by: MGSS Scholarship
Ph.D. student: Daniel Micallef
Date: 2008 - 2012 
Supervisor: Tonio Sant

Selected publications 

• M. Muscat, P. Mollicone, J.H. You, N. Mantel, M. Jetter, Creep fatigue analysis of DEMO divertor
  components following the RCC-MRx design code, Fusion Engineering and Design 188 (2023) 113426, Elsevier . link here
• Elgammi, M. and Sant, T., 'A New Stall Delay Algorithm for Predicting the Aerodynamic Loads on Wind Turbine Blades for Axial and Yawed Conditions', Wind Energy, Wiley, May 2017
• Sant, T. and Cuschieri, K., 'Comparing Three Aerodynamic Models for Predicting The Thrust and Power Characteristics of Yawed Floating Wind Turbine Rotors', ASME Journal for Solar Energy Engineering, 138(3), 031004, SOL-15-1241, February 2016 
• Farrugia, R., Sant, T. and Micallef, D., 'A Study on the Aerodynamics of a Floating Wind Turbine Rotor', Renewable Energy, Elsevier, Vol. 86, pages 770-784, 2016
• Xerri, Stefan; Farrugia, Mario; 'The Effects of Voltage and Suction Line Heat Exchanger on a Domestic Refrigerator’s Performance', Journal of Energy and Power Engineering, Vol 10 , October 2016, pp 606-614, DOI:10.17265/1934-8975/2016.10.004 (On-line, open access)
• Sant, T., del, Campo, V., Micallef, D. and Ferrieira, C.S., 'Evaluation of the Lifting Line Vortex Model Approximation for Estimating the Local Blade Flow Fields in Horizontal-Axis Wind Turbines', J. Renewable and Sustainable Energy 8, 023302 (2016), AIP,  Feb 2015
• Fenech, Graziella; Farrugia, Mario; 'Experimental Analysis of a Fixed Speed and Variable Speed Air Conditioning System', 20th International Conference Engineering Mechanics 2014, Svratka Czech Republic, May 2014
• Cauchi, Jonathan; Ghirlando, Robert; Farrugia, Mario; 'Computer Modelling of high temperature air combustion', HEFAT 2012, 9th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Malta, 16-18 July 2012
• Grech, Nadia; Farrugia, Mario; 'Experimental investigation of variable speed operation of air conditioning',HEFAT 2012, 9th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Malta, 16-18 July 2012

Theme members

Prof. Mario Farrugia
Prof. Robert Ghirlando
Dr Christopher Micallef
Dr Simon Mizzi
Prof. Tonio Sant
Prof. Martin Muscat
Prof. Pierluigi Mollicone