Compared to solar and wind power generating technologies, tidal stream technology is relatively new and there are many problems that hinder the deployment of tidal stream turbines. One such problem is the effect of the tidal stream velocity profile resulting in varying velocity magnitude and its effect on turbine performance. A study incorporating experimental data and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation is carried out in order to start to understand such effects. A CFD model based on an existing turbine was created and validated by comparing its results against experimental results of a previous study. A velocity profile was measured in a water flume experiment, which was then applied to the CFD model as a new upstream boundary condition. The results show that, due to the variation in flow velocity, the torque generated by each blade will fluctuate as it travels through a complete rotation. Despite this, the trend of torque distribution on individual blade has very little change throughout the rotation. Similar effect also takes place on thrust loading of the blades, meaning that blade deflection will change as the turbine rotates, inevitably affecting the fluid dynamics of the turbine.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)