EFFECTS OF TWO TYPES OF CONTROLLABLE DEFORMATION ON ENERGY EXTRACTION OF A FLEXIBLE HYDROFOIL

Abstract

Energy extraction capacity of controllably flexible hydrofoil was studied under two identified deformation modes. Deformation modes, flexure parameters (flexure amplitude  and flexure coefficient ) and motion parameters (reduced frequency f* and pitching amplitude 0) were investigated to understand the effects of controllably flexible deformation on energy extraction. The results reveal that deformation modes affect the effective angle of attack and vortex structure, which influence hydrodynamic performance. The energy extraction capacity improves from the deformation mode 2 to the rigid hydrofoil and then to the deformation mode 1. Under the deformation mode 1, lift, moment and power coefficients are increased obviously with the increase of , while they increase slightly with . Power coefficients and efficiency are sensitive to , which influences the development of leading-edge vortices. The flexible coefficient  affects the wake structure, which has less impact on variation of force coefficient. As the increase in f*, averaged power coefficients firstly increase and then decrease. Further, the optimal f* is subjected to 0. Interestingly, a critical reduced frequency f*s, which is generally increase with increasing 0, was found under three modes. The condition that f* > f*s. is a prerequisite for subsequent adjustments of flexure modes and parameters according to different requirement of power coefficient under different tidal currents. The range of high efficiency () is: deformation mode 1 (36.1%<<54.3%) > rigid hydrofoils (34.2%<<41%) > deformation mode 2 (26.9%<<30.3%).