Dr Markella Zormpa

Integrated Master’s in Mechanical Engineering (2018, National Technical University of Athens); DPhil in Engineering Science (2024, University of Oxford)

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, focusing on the aerodynamics of wind energy and their modelling using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Alongside my own research, I support wind energy DPhil projects within our group. Before my postdoctoral research role, I completed my DPhil at Balliol College focusing on the actuator line modelling of wind turbines and wind turbine wakes. My DPhil was jointly funded by the Department of Engineering Science, and leading wind energy developer RWE Renewables. It was also part of the Wind and Marine Energy Systems and Structures (WAMESS) CDT programme, which includes both a training and a research component. The training part was held at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, where I completed a six-month interdisciplinary course in Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) in 2019.

During my time in Oxford, I’ve held two visiting research posts. In 2025, I was a visiting scholar in Queen’s University Belfast, working on actuator methods for marine hydrokinetic turbines. The visit was funded by the UKRI’s Supergen ORE Hub Early Career Researcher Research Grant. In 2022, I spent three months at the School of Aeronautics of the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, in Spain, as a visiting researcher. The stay was supported by the HORIZON 2020 EC Research Innovation Action Project, HPC-EUROPA3. There I focused on knowledge exchange regarding Dynamic Mode Decomposition methods in fluid mechanics and subsequently applied them to wind turbine wake aerodynamics. 

Prior to my DPhil I was a postgraduate research assistant at NTUA, focusing on shape optimisation methods of conventional thermal and hydraulic turbomachinery blades.

I have tutored third year Engineering Science students Turbulence, Compressible flows and Turbomachines (B19) for two years. I have demonstrated labs, assisted in academic writing workshops and am involved in the supervision of fourth year projects (4YP) at the Department of Engineering Science.

My broader field of research addresses engineering challenges related to the green energy transition, with a focus on the need for the upscaling of wind energy deployment, a crucial technology for net-zero. Unlike traditional turbomachines, which are typically more compact and operate under controlled inlet conditions, wind turbines are much larger, operate in clusters, and are subject to harsh and variable environmental conditions. Methods and tools traditionally used to study the aerodynamics and hydrodynamics of conventional turbomachines are therefore often unsuitable for the study of wind energy aerodynamics.

In my research, I primarily develop and use computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation tools to better understand the aerodynamics of wind turbine wakes, turbine-turbine interactions, unsteady blade aerodynamics and other phenomena crucial for the upscaling and continuous improvement of renewable energy deployment. To overcome issues related to the -often prohibitive- computational cost of wind energy CFD, I use and enhance turbine parameterisation methods such as the actuator line and actuator disc methods. More recently, I am interested in fully resolved simulations of horizontal axis turbine blades, aiming to identify limitations of the actuator methods and extend their applicability. 

I believe that there is exciting potential in transferring established knowledge from wind energy research to more niche ORE applications. In this context, in parallel to my postdoctoral research projects and with the support of Supergen, I am currently also working on the modelling and study of blade-blade interaction of marine hydrokinetic crossflow turbines. 

I employ, enhance, and maintain our group's actuator line method within the open-source CFD software OpenFOAM, and use high-performance supercomputers such as the ARCHER2 Tier 1 UK National Supercomputing Service to address my research objectives.