Physical Modelling of Tidal Stream Turbine Wake Structures under Yaw Conditions

Can Zhang, Jisheng Zhang (), Athanasios Angeloudis, Yudi Zhou, Stephan C. Kramer and Matthew D. Piggott ()
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Can Zhang: College of Harbor, Coastal and Offshore Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
Jisheng Zhang: College of Harbor, Coastal and Offshore Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
Athanasios Angeloudis: School of Engineering, Institute for Infrastructure and the Environment, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH8 9JU, UK
Yudi Zhou: College of Harbor, Coastal and Offshore Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
Stephan C. Kramer: Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK
Matthew D. Piggott: Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, UK

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 4, 1-21

Abstract: Tidal stream turbines may operate under yawed conditions due to variability in ocean current directions. Insight into the wake structure of yawed turbines can be essential to ensure efficient tidal stream energy extraction, especially for turbine arrays where wake interactions emerge. We studied experimentally the effects of turbines operating under varying yaw conditions. Two scenarios, including a single turbine and a set of two turbines in alignment, were configured and compared. The turbine thrust force results confirmed that an increasing yaw angle results in a decrease in the turbine streamwise force and an increase in the turbine spanwise force. The velocity distribution from the single turbine scenario showed that the wake deflection and velocity deficit recovery rate increased at a rate proportional to the yaw angle. The two-turbine scenario results indicated that the deployment of an upstream non-yawed turbine significantly limited the downstream wake steering (i.e., the wake area behind the downstream turbine). Interestingly, a yawed downstream turbine was seen to influence the steering of both the upstream and the downstream wakes. These systematically derived data could be regarded as useful references for the numerical modelling and optimisation of large arrays.

Keywords: tidal stream energy; experiment; wake structure; yaw angles; turbine alignment (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: 2023
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