Performance and Wake Characterization of a Model Hydrokinetic Turbine: The Reference Model 1 (RM1) Dual Rotor Tidal Energy Converter

Craig Hill, Vincent S. Neary, Michele Guala and Fotis Sotiropoulos
Additional contact information
Craig Hill: Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN 55812, USA
Vincent S. Neary: Sandia National Laboratories, Water Power Technologies, Albuquerque, NM 87123, USA
Michele Guala: St. Anthony Falls Laboratory, College of Science & Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
Fotis Sotiropoulos: Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering & Applied Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 19, 1-21

Abstract: The mechanical power and wake flow field of a 1:40 scale model of the US Department of Energy’s Reference Model 1 (RM1) dual rotor tidal energy converter are characterized in an open-channel flume to evaluate power performance and wake flow recovery. The NACA-63(4)-24 hydrofoil profile in the original RM1 design is replaced with a NACA-4415 profile to minimize the Reynolds dependency of lift and drag characteristics at the test chord Reynolds number. Precise blade angular position and torque measurements were synchronized with three acoustic Doppler velocimeters (ADV) aligned with each rotor centerline and the midpoint between the rotor axes. Flow conditions for each case were controlled to maintain a hub height velocity, u h u b = 1.04 ms − 1 , a flow Reynolds number, R e D = 4.4 × 10 5 , and a blade chord length Reynolds number, R e c = 3.1 × 10 5 . Performance was measured for a range of tip-speed ratios by varying rotor angular velocity. Peak power coefficients, C P = 0.48 (right rotor) and C P = 0.43 (left rotor), were observed at a tip speed ratio, λ = 5.1. Vertical velocity profiles collected in the wake of each rotor between 1 and 10 rotor diameters are used to estimate the turbulent flow recovery in the wake, as well as the interaction of the counter-rotating rotor wakes. The observed performance characteristics of the dual rotor configuration in the present study are found to be similar to those for single rotor investigations in other studies. Similarities between dual and single rotor far-wake characteristics are also observed.

Keywords: marine energy; wake flow; rotor performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/19/5145/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/19/5145/ (text/html)

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:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:19:p:5145-:d:423136

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().