Biography
Ken has had the opportunity to work at both NASA Langley in Virginia and the Boeing Aircraft Company after his graduate work, before joining Clarkson in 1998. He was involved in development and design aspects of the High Speed Civil Transport and the 767-400ER, the latter resulting in a novel wingtip patent flown on Boeing aircraft today. Other fun activities included helping in the design of the America's Cup Team 2000, AmericaOne, and working with Fairchild Dornier Aircraft in Germany. In 2006, Ken spent a year at the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR) in Braunschweig, Germany. He then went on to teach at Clarkson University and even developed a wind turbine prototype there as well. Now Ken finds himself leading the charge on the new Aerospace Engineering Concentration here at Calvin University.
Education
Ph.D. - 1991 University of Notre Dame
M.S. - 1988 University of Notre Dame
B.Sc. - 1986 University of Calgary
Academic Interests
Ken’s research interests focus primarily on applied aerodynamics, including areas such as wind turbine design, drag reduction on ground vehicles, and aircraft wing design methodology.
Recent Publications
Visser, K. D.: “On the underperformance of the full-scale Clarkson University 3 meter ducted turbine ”, J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 2767 072027, DOI 10.1088/1742-6596/2767/7/072027, TORQUE 2024, Florence, Italy, June 2024.
Safford, D., Wang, J., Liang, C., Visser, K..:” Unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes Simulations Of A Ducted Wind Turbine”, J. Fluids Eng. Paper No: FE-23-1203, https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4063615
Ding, C., Zhang, B., Liang, C., Visser, K., and Yao, G.:”High-Order Large-Eddy Simulations of a Wind Turbine in Ducted and Open-Rotor Configurations”, J. Fluids Eng. Paper No: FE-22-1281, https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4055989, February, 2023
Visser, K. D.: “Real-world development challenges of the Clarkson University 3 meter ducted wind turbine”, J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 2265 042072, https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/2265/4/042072, June 2022.
Bagheri-Sadeghi, N., Helenbrook, B. T., and Visser, K. D.: “Maximal power per device area of a ducted turbine”, Wind Energ. Sci., 6, 1031-1041, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-6-1031-2021, July 2021.
Kummer, A., DiMeo J., Hebel, M., and Visser, K.D. “On the Use of Cambered Plate Airfoils for Small Wind Turbines” J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 1618 (2020) 042001 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1618/4/042001, https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/1618/4/042001
Valyou, D.N. and Visser, K.D.: “Design considerations for a small ducted wind turbine”, J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 1452 (2020) 012019, doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1452/1/012019 https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1742-6596/1452/1/012019
Kanya, B. and Visser, K. D.: “Experimental Validation of a Ducted Wind Turbine Design Strategy”, Wind Energ. Sci., 3, 919-928, Dec 2018 https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-3-919-2018
Bagheri-Sadeghi, N., Helenbrook, B.T., and Visser, K. D.: “Ducted wind turbine optimization and sensitivity to rotor position”, Wind Energ. Sci., 3, 221-229, https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-3-221-2018, April 2018.
Venters R, Helenbrook B.T, Visser KD. Ducted Wind Turbine Optimization. ASME. J. Sol. Energy Eng. 2017;140(1):011005-011005-8., doi:10.1115/1.4037741. Feb 2018
Kehs, J., Visser, K., Grossman, J., Niemiec, J. et al., "A Comparison of Full Scale Aft Cavity Drag Reduction Concepts With Equivalent Wind Tunnel Test Results," SAE Int. J. Commer. Veh. 6(2):2013, doi:10.4271/2013-01-2429.Streit, T, Visser, K., and Liersch, C.,“Minimal Induced Drag for Non-Planar Lifting Surfaces with Moderate and Small Aspect Ratio” New Results in Numerical and Experimental Fluid Mechanics VII (NNFM) Vol 112, Springer 2010.
