Cavitation Hydrodynamic Performance of 3-D Printed Highly Skewed Stainless Steel Tidal Turbine Rotors

Stylianos Argyrios Pitsikoulis, Sravya Tekumalla, Anurag Sharma, Wai Leong Eugene Wong, Serkan Turkmen and Pengfei Liu ()
Additional contact information
Stylianos Argyrios Pitsikoulis: School of Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK
Sravya Tekumalla: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore
Anurag Sharma: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Newcastle University in Singapore, 172A Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8 #05-01, Singapore 567739, Singapore
Wai Leong Eugene Wong: School of Mechanical and Systems Engineering, Newcastle University International Singapore, 180 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8, Singapore 569830, Singapore
Serkan Turkmen: School of Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK
Pengfei Liu: School of Engineering, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU, UK

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 9, 1-26

Abstract: Hydraulic turbines contribute to 60% of renewable energy in the world; however, they also entail some adverse effects on the aquatic ecology system. One such effect is their excessive noise and vibration. To minimize this effect, one of the most effective and feasible solutions is to modify the design of the turbine rotor blade by introducing a skew. In this study, two 0.3-meter tidal turbines with 0-degree (no-skewness) and positive 90-degree skewness made of stainless steel 316L were designed and printed using a 3-D printing powder bed fusion technique. These rotors were then tested at the Emerson Cavitation Tunnel (ECT) at Newcastle University, UK, and the variation in the skewness of the blades of the turbines as a function of the power coefficient on a given tip speed ratio (TSR) value was ascertained. Results showed that the highly skewed rotor had significantly lower drag and torque fluctuations, with a slight decrease in efficiency compared to the non-skewed one, which warrants further investigation on the effect of added skew to reduce vibration and noise. Numerical simulations were also performed for verification and validation of the experimental tests, using the H45 dynamometer at the ECT. A comprehensive software code for propellers and tidal turbines, ROTORYSICS, was used to examine the cavitation effect of the two rotors; a comparison was made for both, with and without cavitation. The results indicate that for a high immersion depth of tidal turbine rotors, cavitation rarely occurs, but for hydrokinetic turbines that are installed on dams in rivers and falls, cavitation could be a serious concern. It was concluded that the 0-degree skewed rotor is more hydrodynamically efficient than the 90-degree skewed rotor.

Keywords: tidal turbines; cavitation tunnel; cavitation; blade skewness; power generation; structural integrity; environmental impact (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
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/9/3675/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/9/3675/ (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:16:y:2023:i:9:p:3675-:d:1132226

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 ().