Modelling tidal current turbine wakes using a coupled RANS-BEMT approach as a tool for analysing power capture of arrays of turbines

Turnock, Stephen R.; Phillips, Alexander B.; Banks, Joe; Nicholls-Lee, Rachel. 2011 Modelling tidal current turbine wakes using a coupled RANS-BEMT approach as a tool for analysing power capture of arrays of turbines. Ocean Engineering, 38 (11-12). 1300-1307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2011.05.018

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Abstract/Summary

The downstream evolution of the wake generated by a rotating tidal energy conversion device influences the performance of the device itself as well as the performance of any downstream device. An improved method is proposed for coupling a blade element momentum theory inner solution for a horizontal axis tidal turbine with an outer domain flow solved using a commercial finite volume computational Fluid Dynamics solver. A mesh sensitivity study is carried out and shows that for wake evolution of distance 10 diameters a high resolution mesh (>10M cells) is required. The importance of swirl is shown in retarding the wake spreading and that the inclusion of a suitable turbulence intensity term is also required to capture the spread of the near wake. A final section demonstrates the use of such a technique for analysing the energy capture of an array of multiple turbines distributed over 1km2 of seabed. The use of staggered lateral position between longitudinal arrays demonstrates a potential for more effective power capture.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2011.05.018
ISSN:	00298018
Additional Keywords:	CFD, tidal turbine array, power capture prediction, wake evoluiton, blade element momentum
Date made live:	30 Mar 2015 13:33 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/510505

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