William Finnegan

University of Galway | NUI Galway · School of Engineering

As drone technology grows in popularity, its application to automate aspects of society is increasing at a similar rate, where drones are now being trialled for delivering payloads over short distances. In order to progress the technology, 3D composite printing is being used to develop complicated parts for improved aerodynamic design that can be p...

Citation: Ritter, T.; McNiffe, E.; Higgins, T.; Sam-Daliri, O.; Flanagan, T.; Walls, M.; Ghabezi, P.; Finnegan, W.; Mitchell, S.; Harrison, N.M. Design and Modification of a Material Extrusion 3D Printer to Manufacture Functional Gradient PEEK Components. Polymers 2023, 15, 3825. https:// Abstract: In recent years, the creative use of polymers has...

As the world shifts its reliance from fossil fuels to renewable energy, a reliable, predictable and dependable source of energy is vital; tidal energy provides such a solution. In 2021, the cumulative installed capacity of tidal stream energy in Europe, since 2010, reached 30.2 MW, which is roughly three times as much as the rest of the world. The...

Tidal energy, a clean, predictable and reliable renewable energy source, can play an important role in creating a carbon-free energy system in Europe. The cumulative tidal stream technology deployed in Europe was 27.9 MW in 2020, which contributes to 77% of the global total tidal energy device installations. Under a high growth scenario, about 2388...

Horizontal axis tidal turbines are similar to wind turbines in both geometry and principle of operation, yet they need to withstand much heavier loadings and extreme conditions in a harsh operating environment. Consequently, the loadings on tidal turbine blades need to be accurately evaluated within the design stage to ensure they can withstand loa...

As tidal energy nears commercial viability, the reliability and safety of a tidal energy device becomes more prevalent. A key aspect for determining their reliability and safety, along with reducing risk during operational deployment, is the structural integrity of tidal turbine blades. Therefore, a validated model for predicting the structural int...

This paper presents an optimised material extrusion (MEX) 3D printing method with feedstock produced from glass fibre reinforced polypropylene (GFRPP) composite waste and investigates the effect of glass fibre weight fraction (0%, 15%, 30%, 40%) on the printability and mechanical properties of filaments and printed specimens. GFRPP feedstock filame...

Over the last two decades, the tidal energy industry has laid the groundwork for creating commercially viable tidal power generation projects to strengthen sustainable energy policies around the world. At the end of 2021, the cumulative installation of tidal stream technology that has been deployed in Europe reached 30.2 MW, where the majority of t...

Drone technology is widely available and is rapidly becoming a crucial instrument in the functions of businesses and government agencies worldwide. The demand for delivery services is accelerating particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic. Both companies and customers want these services to be efficient, timely, safe, and sustainable, but these are...

This paper presents a structural performance study of a fibre-reinforced composite blade for a 1 MW tidal turbine rotor blade that was designed for a floating tidal turbine device. The 8-m long blade was manufactured by ÉireComposites Teo and its structural performance was experimentally evaluated under mechanical loading in the Large Structures Re...

Currently, wind energy, a reliable, affordable, and clean energy source, contributes to 16% of Europe’s electricity. A typical modern wind turbine design lifespan is 20 years. In European Union countries, the number of wind turbines reaching 20 years or older will become significant beyond 2025. This research study presents a methodology aiming to...

Drone technology is widely available and is rapidly becoming a crucial instrument in the functions of businesses and government agencies worldwide. The demand for delivery services is accelerating particularly since the Covid-19 pandemic. Both companies and customers want these services to be efficient, timely, safe, and sustainable, but these are...

Renewable energy is now accepted as the preferred alternative for electricity generation and as the replacement for fossil fuels. In recent years, tidal energy has shown promise as it is a more reliable source of renewable energy, compared to wind and solar, and 12 GWh of electricity from tidal energy was generated in 2020. As tidal technologies mo...

Modern wind turbine blades experience tip speeds that can exceed 110 m/s. At such speeds, water droplet impacts can cause erosion of the leading edge, which can have a detrimental effect on the performance of the wind turbine blade. More specifically, rain erosion is leading to both reduced efficiency and increased repair costs. The industry is usi...

The EU target for 2030 is to fulfil 32% of its total energy needs with renewables, while a long-term goal for carbon neutrality is set for 2050 [1]. To achieve these goals, the design, manufacture and operation (including repair) of wind turbine blades need to be further improved to produce more electricity at lower life cycle cost [2]. Modern wind...

Tidal energy has seen a surge of interest in recent years with several companies developing technology to harness the power of the world’s oceans where the operational capacity in Europe was over 11 MW in 2020. One such developer is the partnership of SCHOTTEL Hydro (Germany) and Sustainable Marine (UK) who have developed a scalable multi-turbine d...

The use of fibre-reinforced polymer composites has increased in recent years across various industries, such as aircraft, energy, sports, infrastructure, medical, defence, electronics, and automobile industries [1]. In particular, carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRP) and glass fibre reinforced polymers (GFRP) [1, 2] regularly demonstrate favoura...

The EU H2020 MaRINET2 project aims to improve the quality, robustness and accuracy of physical modelling and testing practices implemented by test infrastructures. A key element of the project is a round robin testing program where generic wave, floating wind, and tidal devices are tested in different infrastructures in order to assess the impact t...

Guidelines aimed at assisting offshore renewable energy technology developers in getting the most of testing campaigns. This document covers laboratory and field testing.

After wind and solar energy, tidal energy presents the most prominent opportunity for generating energy from renewable sources. However, due to the harsh environment that tidal turbines are deployed in, a number of design and manufacture challenges are presented to engineers. As a consequence of the harsh environment, the loadings on the turbine bl...

Increased pressure is being applied to industrial wastewater treatment facilities to adhere to more stringent regulations for the discharge of treated wastewater and to improve energy efficiency of the process. Nitrogen and phosphorous removal can be challenging to achieve efficiently, and in the case of phosphorous removal, can often necessitate t...

Renewable energy is now viewed as being the preferred alternative to electricity generation from fossil fuels. In recent years, tidal energy has shown promise as it is a more reliable source of renewable energy, compared to wind and solar, where 15 GWh of electricity from tidal energy was generated in 2019. As tidal technologies move closer to comm...

Created by the gravitational pull of the moon and sun, the ocean current can be predicted with complete accuracy. Tidal turbines convert the power in ocean currents to energy, by reducing the flow velocity, making this a predictable and reliable resource. A key component of the tidal turbine is the blades, where their quality in manufacturing has a...

The progressive increase in the size of modern wind turbine blades results in a similar increase in the tip speeds of the blades. Repeated water droplets at these high impact velocities can cause significant erosion damage at the leading edges of wind turbine blades. Polymeric protective coatings are being employed to protect the blades from rain e...

Over the past 30 years, wind energy has been established as one of the leading forms of renewable energy. As the industry grows so too does the size of the wind turbines themselves – large wind turbines can now generate up to 15 MW. However, with larger turbines comes additional structural challenges to overcome, where one such challenge is erosion...

This paper presents a study of the structural response of a rotor blade that was designed for a 1 MW floating tidal turbine device. The 8 m long blade was manufactured by ÉireComposites Teo and its structural performance was experimentally evaluated under mechanical loading in the Large Structures Research Laboratory at National University of Irela...

As the world shifts to using renewable sources of energy, wind energy has been established as one of the leading forms of renewable energy. As the requirement for wind energy increases, so too does the size of the turbines themselves, where the latest turbines are 10 MW with a turbine diameter in excess of 190 m. The design and manufacture of the b...

In recent years, great emphasis has been seen to reduce the environmental footprint of the activities in our daily lives. Food is essential for all life, and its production may have a significant environmental impact if it is not properly monitored. In this chapter the environmental impact associated with the production of dairy products, along wit...

As the world strives to remove its reliance on fossil fuels, wave energy presents a reliable source of renewable energy with a very high potential. Numerical simulations offer an inexpensive alternative, in comparison to physical modelling, for the development of wave energy converters. In this paper, a computational fluid dynamics model of the CEC...

As the world shifts to using renewable sources of energy, wind energy has been established as one of the leading forms of renewable energy. However, as wind turbines get increasingly larger, new challenges within the design, manufacture and operation of the turbine are presented. One such challenge is leading edge erosion on wind turbine blades. Wi...

As the world moves to a greater reliance on renewable energy, a vital component will be the predictability and dependability of the energy source; tidal energy provides such a solution. Horizontal axis tidal turbines are the most mature technology of all the marine renewable energy devices currently under development, as full-scale porotypes are al...

Abstract. As the world shifts to using renewable sources of energy, wind energy has been established as one of the leading forms of renewable energy. However, as wind turbines get increasingly larger, new challenges within the design, manufacture and operation of the turbine are presented. One such challenge is leading edge erosion on wind turbine...

Purpose Cheese is one of the world’s most widely consumed dairy products and its popularity is ever growing. However, as concerns for the environmental impact of industries increase, products like cheese, which have a significant environmental impact, may lose their popularity. A commonly used technique to assess the environmental impact of a produ...

In this Research Communication we investigate potential correlations between key bacterial groups and nutrient removal efficiency in an Intermittently Aerated Sequencing Batch Reactor (IASBR) treating synthetic dairy processing wastewater. Reactor aeration rates of 0·6 and 0·4 litre per minute (LPM) were applied to an 8 l laboratory scale system an...

This Research Communication describes the initial operation of a pilot-scale intermittently aerated sequencing batch reactor system, which is located at an Irish dairy processing factory. Laboratory-scale research has facilitated the design specifications and operational parameters necessary for the construction and running of a pilot-scale. Labora...

This Review describes the objectives and methodology of the DairyWater project as it aims to aid the Irish dairy processing industry in achieving sustainability as it expands. With the abolition of European milk quotas in March 2015, the Republic of Ireland saw a surge in milk production. The DairyWater project was established in anticipation of th...

This Research Communication describes an investigation into the viability of an Intermittently Aerated Sequencing Batch Reactor (IASBR) for the treatment of dairy processing wastewater at laboratory-scale. A number of operational parameters have been varied and the effect has been monitored in order to determine optimal conditions for maximising re...

This Research Communication describes the methodology used and the subsequent results obtained for an assessment of the environmental impact associated with the manufacture of dairy products in the Republic of Ireland. As the Irish dairy industry changes and grows, it is necessary to have a benchmark of the environmental performance of the sector i...

In this Research Communication we investigate the microbiological profile of 12 dairy wastewater streams from three contrasting Irish dairy processing factories to determine whether faecal indicators/pathogens were present and in turn, whether disinfection may be required for potential water reuse within the factory. Subsequently, the impact of sus...

Dairy processing generates large volumes of wastewater that require extensive nutrient remediation prior to discharge. Significant commercial opportunities exist therefore for cost-effective biotechnologies capable of achieving this requirement. In this study the authors evaluated the use of intermittently aerated sequencing batch reactors, (IASBRs...

One minute oral poster presentation

Normalised resistance interpretation was applied to measure the effects of incubation temperature and times on the precision of the data generated by MIC and disc diffusion antimicrobial susceptibility tests performed at 35 °C for 16 h, 28 °C for 24 h, at 22 °C for 24 h, at 22 °C for 48 h and <19 °C for >96 h. Analysis of 151 MIC data sets and 141...

This paper presents a validated protocol, using a novel, specifically formulated medium, to perform broth microdilution antimicrobial susceptibility assays of the salmonid bacterial pathogen Piscirickettsia salmonis. The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) for florfenicol and oxytetracycline against 58 P. salmonis isolates recovered from variou...

Climate change is an ever growing issue and a major concern worldwide. Both producers and processors need to address the issue now by reducing their carbon footprint. Additionally, if Ireland is to meet their climate and energy targets, as outlined in Food Harvest 2020, which outlines a range of objectives for the Irish agricultural sector, the eff...

The abolition of the milk quota system that was in place in Europe was abolished in 2015, which instigated an immediate increase in milk production in many European countries. This increase will aid in addressing the world's ever growing demand for food, but will incur increased stresses on the environmental impact and sustainability of the dairy i...

Ocean energy converters (OECs) are becoming a more popular source of electricity generated from the ocean. The main obstacle associated with the use of OECs is their high initial installation cost. In light of this, geotechnical engineers have been challenged with revisiting the foundation system towards more economical design. In this paper, the f...

In the design of any floating or fixed marine structure, it is vital to test models in order to understand the fluid/structure interaction involved. A relatively inexpensive method, compared to physical model testing, of achieving this is to numerically model the structure and the wave conditions in a numerical wave tank. In this paper, a methodolo...

In 2015, the milk quota system that is in place in Europe is to be abolished, instigating an increase in milk production. This increase will aid in addressing the world's ever growing demand for food, but will incur increased stresses on the environmental impact and sustainability of the dairy industry. In this paper, an environmental life cycle as...

Ocean wave energy is one of the world's most powerful forms of energy and the energy density in ocean waves is the highest among renewable energy sources. Wave energy converters are employed to harness this energy and convert it into usable electrical energy. However, in order to efficiently extract the energy, the wave energy converter must be opt...

A vital aspect of ensuring the cost effectiveness of wave energy converters (WECs) is being able to monitor their performance remotely through structural health monitoring, as these devices are deployed in very harsh environments in terms of both accessibility and potential damage to the devices. The WECs are monitored through the use of measuring...

One of the main stages in the design of wave energy converters (WEC's) is the numerical modelling of a given converter. In this paper, the numerical simulation of both linear deep water waves and linear waves for the finite depth case are explored using computational fluid dynamics (CFD), to aid in this design stage. The CFD software package descri...