Study of Vortex Effect on Vertical Axis Marine Current Turbine Arm

Abstract

The design of a marine current turbine generator specifically in deep water with unequal seabed which requires the designer to develop a floating platform for the turbine. It creates a massive challenge in improving the mechanical system, such as the turbine arm. In order to make the monitoring and maintenance accessible, the generator must be placed on the platform’s deck. A long shaft is required to make the connection between the generator and turbine. The problems occur due to the vibration generated by the vortex around the shaft or the turbine arm. This paper aim is to investigate the vortex effect on the turbine arm and propose an advanced design to reduce its impact. The computational fluid dynamic method is approached to analyse the vortex generated by the turbine arm. The analysis compared the conventional cylindrical and the foil-shaped turbine arm. Moreover, the investigation includes force along the X-axis and Y-axis, flow, drag, lift coefficient, also fatigue lift near the turbine arm. The numerical output illustrates that the foil shaped on the turbine arm provided limited vortex and improved the performance compared to the conventional cylindrical turbine arm.