A novel V-shaped layout method for VIV hydrokinetic energy converters inspired by geese flying in a V-Formation

Baoshou Zhang, Zhaoyong Mao, Liang Wang, Song Fu and Wenjun Ding

Energy, 2021, vol. 230, issue C

Abstract: A novel bio-inspired V-shaped layout is proposed to enhance energy conversion performance for VIV hydrokinetic energy converters. The layout method is inspired by wild geese flying in a V-formation. In this paper, 2-dimensional RANS equations with the SST k-ω turbulence model are used to simulate the VIV responses at various distances. The numerical method is verified by comparing with experiments. Two-cylinder and five-cylinder V-shaped layout are investigated separately to analyze multi-cylinder interactions. The main conclusions are: (1) The VIV response of the upstream cylinder is suppressed due to the blockage effect when at small distance. (2) The energy recovery area of downstream cylinders is identified and located on the edge of the wake. (3) In the energy recovery area, the enhancement mechanism of this novel layout is the upstream and downstream vortices coalesce, resulting in a significant increase in lift force on the downstream cylinder. (4) The converted power of downstream cylinders in the energy recovery area is increased by up to 6.3%–8.4%. Future work is directed to optimize the distance among the cylinders for optimal energy conversion.

Keywords: Vortex-induced vibration (VIV); Numerical method; V-shaped layout; Hydrokinetic energy conversion; Multi-cylinder interactions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544221010598
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:230:y:2021:i:c:s0360544221010598

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2021.120811

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().