Modelling the effect of large arrays of tidal turbines with depth-averaged Actuator Disks

Abstract

The Actuator Disk concept is suitable to simulate the flow interactions between tidal turbines. As the computational expense of AD simulations is too large for applications at regional scale, the “bed friction” method is generally preferred. It consists in applying an enhanced drag over the tidal farm area. The main drawback is that the flow around each turbine is not resolved and that the flow interactions between the turbines’ wakes are neglected. The extent to which this simplification affects the accuracy of the large scale flow is not well understood. Here, we propose a methodology for representing large arrays of tidal turbines in Shallow Water Equations solvers. It consists in representing individual turbines as small areas where a sink momentum term is applied. The sink term is calculated from the vertical integration of the force exerted on an AD. After validating the model, we apply the methodology to simulate the effect of 45 turbines placed in the Alderney Race. The results are compared to the results obtained with the “bed friction” method. The two approaches give similar results because the hydrodynamics conditions of the Alderney Race favor the mixing of the wakes which prevents the flow interactions between the turbines.