MeSSO undertakes research in a number of different applications within the general domain of mechanical, agri and energy systems simulation. A selection on current projects are summarised below. 

Current Projects

National Agricultural Energy Optimisation Tool

The National Agricultural Energy Optimisation Tool aims to quantify and reduce farm electricity consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and production costs through data analysis and mathematical modelling. This open-source tool simulates the application of energy saving and renewable energy technologies on Irish farms. The tool has been developed in collaboration between the MeSSO Research Group at Cork Institute of Technology, the SEAI and Teagasc.

Grass Measurement Optimisation

The grass measurement optimisation tool (GMOT) is designed to optimise grass measurement practices on livestock grazing platforms by increasing measurement precision and curtailing measurement time and effort. The GMOT was developed by the MeSSO Research Group in CIT and Teagasc Moorepark to promote regular and precise grass measurement on grazing platforms; therefore increasing annual fresh grass utilisation and sustainability within grass based livestock industries. The GMOT generates optimum grass measurement protocols in the form of interactive paddock maps that identify target measurement locations and the optimum measurement route, additionally measurement precision is also predicted. Through increased measurement accuracy, GMOT aids in the effective allocation of grass feed, and therefore increases the sustainability and profitability of pasture based farming systems. The development of GMOT was partially funded through ERA-NET ICT-Agri Horizon2020.

IEA EBC Annex 62 - Ventilative Cooling

MESSO Group are national participant and co-Leader of subtask C with Hunan University for IEA Annex 62 on ventilative cooling . The results from the Annex will facilitate better possibilities for prediction and estimation of heat removal and overheating risk in low energy buildings NBERT / Zero2020 is a key case study for the annex.for more information see : http://www.venticool.eu

National Building Retrofit  - Stock Aggregation Tools / Performance Data Portal

MESSO are responsible for the operation of a National Low Energy Retrofit testbed at CIT. The output from this ongoing project will be a weather and building energy systems performance database for use by the wider research communities. The long term aim is to provide an open source statistical and data analysis portal for the zero2020 building that can be used for building energy model validation.  NBERT

Ventilation Airflow performance in Cleanrooms 

This project is part funded by PM Group and involves the study of improved modelling techniques for predicting the multi-variate relationship between suspended particulate levels in manufacturing grade C cleanrooms and operator gowning regimes, air flow rates, diffuser locations amongst other criteria influencing correct selection of design air flow rates .

Control and optimisation of smart grid connect buildings

This body of research focuses on the integration of renewable energy sources with a smart building. The objective of this research will be to develop a control and optimisation strategy for a working low energy consumption smart building with integrated renewable energy supply on a smart grid.

Vertical axis wind turbine design

Traditional wind turbines are not a favourable design for offshore, floating applications. The aims of this research focus on the aerodynamic optimisation of vertical axis wind turbine performance using numerical modelling coupled with experimental validation for multi MW turbine design.

Oscillating water column optimisation

This project employs CFD as a cost and time effective design tool for optimising offshore, floating wave energy converters. Numerical wave tank discretization error is minimized to acceptable levels and following model verification, a floating structure is introduced. The response of both the structure and water column can be tuned to ensure optimum performance for specific sea states.

Fifth Generation 

Fifth generation district heating and cooling (5GDHC) systems have the potential to provide clean and cost-effective heating and cooling to urban customers by recovering low temperature waste heat and by utilizing load diversity throughout the network. The network topology greatly influences both the economic and environmental performance of a 5GDHC system. In this research project the optimal trade-offs between the environmental and economic performance of 5GDHC network topologies for a five-building district with waste heat recovery were explored with collaborators from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, University of Colorado Boulder and the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute, US.

Demand Response Analysis Framework

Draf (demand response analysis framework) is a modular framework that enables the economic and ecological evaluation of industrial demand response. This open-source tool optimises internal flexibility, energy storage and renewable energy systems to minimize the associated carbon emissions from the commercial section in the most economically viable way.

Collaborators

MESSO has collaborated on academic and commercial projects with the following partners:

• Teagasc Moorepark
• Brunel University London
• University College Dublin
• Wagening University
• ICAM University
• University La Rochelle
• Penn State University
• International Energy Agency
• Met Éireann
• University of Colorado Boulder
• US National Renewable Energy Laboratory
• University of Lisbon
• Osaka University
• SEAI
• Maynooth University
• INRA
• Finnish Geospatial Institute
• Agroscope
• Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences
• Fulbright Commission
• KU Leuven

Opportunities

MESSO has research positions available on a rolling basis such as the MeSSO Industry Fellowship, funded PhDs and Postdoc positions. If you are interested in working or colloborating with the group please contact us MESSO.