Conference item icon

Conference item

Tidal turbine benchmarking project: stage I – steady flow experiments

Abstract:

The tidal turbine benchmarking project, funded by the UK's EPSRC and the Supergen ORE Hub, has conducted a large laboratory scale experiment on a highly instrumented 1.6m diameter tidal rotor. The turbine is instrumented for the measurement of spanwise distributions of flapwise and edgewise bending moments using strain gauges and a fibre Bragg optical system, as well as overall rotor torque and thrust. The turbine was tested in well-defined flow conditions, including grid-generated freestream turbulence, and was towed through the 12.2m wide, 5.4m deep long towing tank at Qinetiq’s Haslar facility. The turbine scale was such that blade Reynolds numbers were Re=3x10^5 and therefore post-critical, whilst turbine blockage was kept low at 3.1.

In order to achieve higher levels of freestream turbulence a 2.4m by 2.4m turbulence grid was towed 5m upstream of the turbine. Measurements to characterise the grid generated turbulence were made at the rotor plane using an Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter and a five-hole pressure probe. An elevated turbulence of 3.1% with homogeneous flow speed across the rotor plane was achieved using the upstream turbulence grid.

The experimental tests are well defined and repeatable, and provide relevant data for validating models intended for use in the design and analysis of full-scale turbines. This paper reports on the first experimental stage of the tidal benchmarking programme, including the design of the rotor and comparisons of the experimental results to blade resolved numerical simulations.

Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Peer reviewed

Actions


Access Document


Publisher copy:
10.36688/ewtec-2023-553

Authors


More by this author
Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
MPLS
Department:
Engineering Science
Role:
Author


Publisher:
European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference
Host title:
Proceedings of the 15th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference (EWTEC 2023)
Volume:
15
Issue:
3
Publication date:
2023-09-04
Acceptance date:
2023-07-24
Event title:
15th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference (EWTEC 2023)
Event location:
Bilbao, Spain
Event website:
https://ewtec.org/ewtec-2023/
Event start date:
2023-09-03
Event end date:
2023-09-07
DOI:


Language:
English
Keywords:
Pubs id:
1540804
Local pid:
pubs:1540804
Deposit date:
2023-10-03

Terms of use



Views and Downloads






If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record

TO TOP