Abstract

In this study, three-dimensional transient numerical simulations of the flow around a cross flow water turbine of the type H-Darrieus are performed. The hydrodynamic characteristics and performance of the turbine are investigated by means of a time-accurate unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) commercial solver (ANSYS-Fluent v. 19) where the time dependent rotor-stator interaction is described by the sliding mesh approach. The transition shear stress transport turbulence model has been employed to represent the turbulent dynamics of the underlying flow. Computations are validated versus previous experimental work in terms of the turbine efficiency curve showing good agreement between numerical and experimental values. The behavior of the power and force coefficients as a function of turbine angular speed is analyzed. Moreover, visualizations and analyses of the instantaneous vorticity iso-surfaces developing at different blade rotational velocities are presented including a few movies as additional material. Finally, the fluid variables fields are averaged along a turbine revolution and are compared with the steady predictions of simplified steady approaches based on the blade element momentum theory and the double multiple streamtube method (BEM-DMS).

Highlights

  • The ever-increasing energy demand, the depletion of fossil fuels, the environmental issues derived from global ecosystems degradation, and the political turmoil of the main oil producing regions constitute a serious concern about world energy sustainability

  • The transitional to allow the resolution of the boundary layer development theMoreover, blades

  • SST)(transition was capable to handle the laminar to turbulent transition transitional turbulence model employed was capable to handle the laminar to of such boundary layer.ofAs a result, the present reproduce efficiency turbulent transition such boundary layer. computations

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Summary

Introduction

The ever-increasing energy demand, the depletion of fossil fuels, the environmental issues derived from global ecosystems degradation, and the political turmoil of the main oil producing regions constitute a serious concern about world energy sustainability. The CFD technique is coupled with an actuator line or disk approach, which considers the rotor as a momentum source In this sense, a LES approach in combination with an actuator line model or actuator-swept surface model has been applied in some recent works [34,35,36] to simulate the mid and far wake development behind vertical tidal turbines, obtaining a good comparison versus measured data. The last section presents the conclusions obtained in the present study

Turbine Configuration and Simulation Set-Up
Experimental Validation of Present Computations
Analysis of the Torque and Force Coefficients for Different TSR Values
Visualization of Vorticity Iso-Surfaces for Different TSR Values
Analysis of the AveragedFlow
15. Average turbulent energy field in three horizontal planes:
Conclusions

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