Aerospace engineering group takes first place in national student paper competition

Harsha Sista on stage at AIAA Aviation Conference being presented with Best Paper Award — Aerospace Engineering graduate student and the paper’s first author Harsha Sista receives the Best Student Paper Award at the AIAA Aviation conference in Las Vegas

The co-authors of the awarded paper and faculty member Hui Hu in a group photo at the Las Vegas conference — Co-authors of the awarded paper at the Las Vegas conference. From left: Hyang Hu, Anvesh Dhulipalla, first author Harsha Sista, Professor Hui Hu, Amrit Kumar

A group of Department of Aerospace Engineering graduate researchers and others with ties to the department has been awarded first place in an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) paper competition.

“An Experimental Study on the Detrimental Effects of Rainfall on Wind Turbine Blades,” was named the winner in the 2024 AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Technical Committee Student Paper Competition. The group was honored at the AIAA Aviation Forum held in Las Vegas.

Iowa State University Dept. of Aerospace Engineering students from Hui Hu research group with Hu and department chair Wayne Chen at Las Vegas AIAA conference — Department of Aerospace Engineering student representatives from Hui Hu’s research group at the AIAA conference are joined by Hu (fourth from left) and Vance and Arlene Coffman Endowed Department Chair Wayne Chen (third from left)

The paper’s first author is Harsha Sista, a department graduate student studying under Anson Marston Distinguished Professor and Martin C. Jischke Professor Hui Hu. The group also includes AerE graduate student Anvesh Dhulipalla, AerE postdoctoral researcher Amrit Kumar (both part of Hui Hu’s research group) and Haiyang Hu, a former AerE graduate student and postdoctoral researcher, who is now an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at University of Alabama in Huntsville. Hui Hu is the corresponding author.

The paper investigates the performance degradation of wind turbines due to rainfall on turbine blades using various qualitative and quantitative measurement techniques.