ENG3104 Engineering Simulations and Computations

Semester 2, 2015

Assessment: Assignment 1
Due: 17 August 2015
Marks: 50
Value: 5%
Introduction
Wind power is one of the myriad renewable energies that we can exploit to reduce our dependence on
fossil fuels. For this assignment, you will determine how much power is available in the wind at
Toowoomba Airport to have an indication of what is possible. Five years worth of data from the
Bureau of Meteorology for Toowoomba Airport is available as ass1data.xls (stored in
ass1data.zip) from the Study Desk. From this data, you will be able to calculate the power in an
undisturbed stream of air with cross-section A1:

P0

1
A1u03
2

(1)

where is the air density and u0 the air speed. To calculate the density, the ideal gas law can be used:

p RT

(2)

where p is the pressure, R = 287.0 J/kg.K is the ideal gas constant for air and T is the air temperature
(in Kelvin).
You must plot the wind speed versus time. An easy method of displaying the time in the plot
is to use the column of data that was created using the datenum function. To convert these numbers
into a nice format, use the command datetime (time is the number that is > 732 000):
displaytime = datetime(time, 'ConvertFrom','datenum');

If your installation of MATLAB is prior to R2014b, you dont have the function datetime, so plot
time so it starts from zero using:
displaytime = datenum datenum(1);

You are required to calculate the power in an undisturbed stream of air of radius 20 m (which
is a typical wind turbine size). To report your results, you should plot the power versus time and also
save the time and power in a text file.
Requirements
For this assessment item, you must produce MATLAB code which:
1. Loads the data file.
2. Checks that the values that have been loaded into MATLAB correspond to the values in the
data file (code verification). You should confirm this is the case by displaying in the
Command Window the first 5 values of wind speed and temperature; you must display a
statement that you have confirmed that these values are correct.
3. Plots the data for the wind speed versus time.
4. Plots the data for air density versus time.
5. Computes the power in an undisturbed stream of air.
6. Plots the power in an undisturbed stream of air versus time.
7. Displays a message in the Command Window showing the average power and the maximum
power for the entire dataset. You will receive an unusual result for the average power; we
will look at how to fix this in Assignment 2.
8. Displays a message in the Command Window showing the average power and the maximum
power for the first week of data.
9. Stores the data for the time and power in an ASCII file so that it could be used to plot the
power versus time by someone else writing a different code.
10. Has appropriate comments throughout.

Page 1 of 2

ENG3104 Engineering Simulations and Computations

Semester 2, 2015

You must also write a brief report (about 100 words, excluding any code), which includes:
a) A description of an instance during the writing of your code where there was a problem (e.g.
a bug, an error, an unexpected result) or the most challenging aspect to overcome.
b) What steps you took to overcome the problem or challenge (including any code you wrote to
test the problem/challenge).
c) The code before you resolved the problem or challenge, highlighting the line(s) of code
where the problem or challenge occurred.
d) The code after you resolved the problem/overcame the challenge.
e) Code from the MATLAB editor are to be copied into Word; screenshots should be taken of
the Command window.
Submission
Submit your code, with the ass1data.xls file that is provided to you, by the due date to the
StudyDesk. Submit your problem report as a pdf file that contains selectable text (your assignment
will not be marked if the pdf file does not satisfy this requirement).
Note that:
Only code appearing in *.m files will be marked.
You may need to convert the ass1data.xls file to another format (e.g. ass1data.xlsx) to import
properly into MATLAB. In that case, you must submit the file that you actually import using
your code.
You do not need to rename your files when uploading: the system automatically segregates
different students submissions.
You should upload all of your files individually.
o You can submit your code in a *.zip file (do not archive in another file format such
as rar or 7z),
o you should definitely submit your Excel file in a *.zip file (its own or with the code),
o but your problem report must be a separate file that is not archived.
You will NOT receive any confirmation of receipt. If you can see that the file(s) has
uploaded, then you have successfully submitted your assignment. There is no need to click a
send for marking button, but you will have to click a button confirming that the submission
is your own work.
Assessment Criteria
Your code will be assessed using the following scheme. Note that you are marked based on how well
you perform for each category, so the correct answer determined in a basic way will receive half
marks and the correct answer determined using an excellent method/code will receive full marks.
Quality of the code
5 marks
Quality of header(s) and comments
10 marks
Quality of verification of correct data loading
5 marks
Quality of plots (e.g., axis labels, titles)
10 marks
Quality of power calculation
5 marks
Quality of mean/max reporting
5 marks
Quality of text file output
5 marks
Quality of problem report
5 marks
The problem report will be assessed using the following scheme:
Description
Excellent description of a difficult problem and effective solution
Good description of a moderate problem and useful solution
Reasonable description of a genuine problem with a pragmatic solution
Poor description or Problem is not very challenging or Solution is not effective/efficient
Problem is trivial or Solution is poor
No report or description does not include a genuine problem

Marks
5
4
3
2
1
0
Page 2 of 2