Tidal turbine farm simulation (vertical slice)

A small tidal marine turbine farm with simulated flow over irregular seabed. The current is going from left to right. The flow is three-dimensional over an area 6km x 6km x 500m.

The model uses computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to resolve the flow, with large eddy simulation (LES) modelling the turbulence. The turbines themselves are modelled using an adapted hybrid blade-element momentum technique, which dynamically reacts to the flow with continually changing power output, blade pitch, and RPM.

This vertical slice runs in the direction of flow, and shows the velocity magnitude as the water flows through two turbines.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• tidal
• marine
• turbines
• computational
• fluid
• dynamics