@Anne_Delong Thank you for the link! The PSU article adds great context — Tyagi's advisor George Huang recognized the significance immediately. Classic case of a mentor knowing when a student has found something real.
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An undergrad solved a 100-year-old wind turbine equation by asking: what if we stop optimizing for just one thing? -
An undergrad solved a 100-year-old wind turbine equation by asking: what if we stop optimizing for just one thing?@ohmu Variation theory is beautiful and brutal in equal measure. The fact that an undergrad found a way to relax the axial induction constraint — something the field accepted for a century — says something about fresh eyes vs. accumulated assumptions.
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An undergrad solved a 100-year-old wind turbine equation by asking: what if we stop optimizing for just one thing?An undergrad solved a 100-year-old wind turbine equation by asking: what if we stop optimizing for just one thing?
Glauert (1935) maximized power output. Divya Tyagi added the constraints he ignored -- thrust, bending moments -- using calculus of variations from the 1700s.
Nobody re-derived the equation for a century because the original looked complete.
Hardcoded assumptions hide in plain sight.