Physical testing and numerical modelling of a novel vertical-axis tidal stream turbine

Harries, Tom 2014. Physical testing and numerical modelling of a novel vertical-axis tidal stream turbine. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

A combination of climate change, due to anthropogenic CO2 emissions and concerns over energy security, due to fluctuating fuel prices, has led to the UK pushing to increase its renewable energy production. Harnessing tidal stream energy is an infant sector in the UK’s renewable energy portfolio, despite the UK’s large tidal stream resource, and is harnessed through deploying tidal stream energy converters. This thesis focuses on the design of a novel vertical axis tidal turbine (VATT) called CarBine which is driven by drag force and therefore has several unique advantages, including slow rotational speed, omni-directionality and a simple design. This research focused on the optimisation of the CarBine design and was split into two areas: physical testing and numerical modelling. A conventional Savonius was also analysed in both of these respects and this enabled a direct comparison of CarBine to a competing drag force driven VATT. Physical testing measured the power of the turbines and was conducted in hydraulic flumes at both Cardiff University (CU) and IFREMER in Northern France for a range of flow conditions. Testing at IFREMER enabled the quantification of the blockage effect in the CU experiments. Physical testing resulted in the optimised design of CarBine being one with a four arm configuration. From physical testing at CU, CarBine showed inferior efficiency performance to that of the conventional Savonius, a Cp of 0.117 compared to 0.225 at U∞=0.72 m/s. As a result a hybrid of both the Savonius and CarBine was tested, namely a Savonius with flaps. However, results from physical testing showed the Savonius with flaps to have inferior performance to both CarBine and the conventional Savonius, with a Cp of 0.103 at U∞=0.72 m/s at CU. Numerical modelling was conducted using the commercial CFD software package, Ansys CFX. Both transient and steady state simulations along with 2D and 3D models were used to model both CarBine and the Savonius. Both the k-ε and SST turbulence models were used for comparison. The two degrees of rotational freedom present in the CarBine design resulted in CarBine being difficult to model precisely. The numerical modelling results were validated against the physical testing results and where available, 3D results showed closer validation than the 2D results.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Engineering
Subjects:	T Technology > TC Hydraulic engineering. Ocean engineering T Technology > TD Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Vertical - Axis Turbine; Tidal Stream; Savonius; Blockage Effect; Ansys CFX; CFD.
Funders:	Knowledge Economy Skills Scholarship
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	30 March 2016
Last Modified:	24 Aug 2022 09:01
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/66145

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