Marsh, P;
Ranmuthugala, D;
Penesis, I;
Thomas, G;
(2016)
Numerical simulation of the loading characteristics of straight and helical-bladed vertical axis tidal turbines.
Renewable Energy
, 94
pp. 418-428.
10.1016/j.renene.2016.03.060.
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Abstract
The stress and deflection of straight and helical-bladed vertical axis turbines was investigated using hydrodynamic and structural analysis models. Using Double Multiple Streamtube (DMS) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models, the hydrodynamic forces and pressures on the turbines were modelled for three rotational rates from startup to over speed conditions. The results from these hydrodynamic models were then used to determine stress and total deflection levels using beam theory and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) methods. Maximum stress and deflection levels were found when the blades were in the furthest upstream region, with the highest stresses found at the blade-strut joints for the turbines studied. The helical turbine exhibited on average 13% lower maximum stress levels than the straight-bladed turbine, due to the helical distribution of the blades around the rotational axis. All simulation models offered similar accuracy when predicting maximum blade stress and deflection levels; however for detailed analysis of the blade-strut joints the more computationally demanding CFD-FEA models were required. Straight-bladed, rather than helical turbines, are suggested to be more suited for tidal installations, as for the same turbine frontal area they produce higher power output with only 13% greater structural stress loading.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Numerical simulation of the loading characteristics of straight and helical-bladed vertical axis tidal turbines |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.renene.2016.03.060 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2016.03.060 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2016. This manuscript version is published under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Non-derivative 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This licence allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work for personal and non-commercial use providing author and publisher attribution is clearly stated. Further details about CC BY licences are available at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0. |
| Keywords: | Vertical axis turbine; Structural loading; Stress and deflection; Computational fluid dynamics; Finite element analysis |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Mechanical Engineering |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1508781 |
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