Professor
Address:
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Faculty of Applied Sciences
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Building Z – Room ZW118
Pleinlaan 2
B-1050 Brussels
Belgium
Phone: +32 2 629 31 81
Email: jan.helsen(a)vub.be
Biography
Jan Helsen was born in Antwerp, Belgium, 1983. He received his master in Engineering Sciences specialisation Mechatronics at KU Leuven. In 2006-2007 he wrote his Master-Thesis during a research stay at BMW R&D Munich. From 2007-2012 he joined the KU Leuven department of Mechanical Engineering for his PhD titled: The dynamics of high power density gearboxes with special focus on wind turbines. From 2012-2014 Jan initiated his current topic focussing on monitoring of wind turbine drivetrains in cooperation with ZF Wind Power and Siemens in the framework of an IWT Innovation Mandate. Currently Jan is post-doc within the Brussels Wind Energy Research Institute, BruWind. The research program of BruWind covers various aspects of modern wind turbine technology.The main research-objective is cost reduction by increasing the availability and reliability of wind turbines, by optimizing the operation and maintenance management of wind farms by using state-of-the are monitoring solutions (more info: www.bruwind.eu) . At the moment he is also the coordinator drivetrain monitoring at The Flanders Offshore Wind Infrastructure Application Lab The founding partners of this initiative are: Sirris, VUB, 3E, ZF Wind Power, CG, DEME GeoSea, Agoria. The Offshore Wind Infrastructure research initiative consists in the realisation of a number of investments allowing for the monitoring and modeling of offshore wind energy resources and of the behaviour of systems components in offshore wind farms. On the short term, the project aims at the setup of a complete wind-monitoring and testing infrastructure. It aims at improving the lifetime of offshore wind turbine components, at optimising the Operation and Maintenance strategies for offshore wind parks and maximising the energy output of offshore wind farms. (more info: http://www.owi-lab.be/)
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