Numerical simulation of the wake of marine current turbines with a particle method

Grégory Pinon (1) , Paul Mycek (1, 2) , Grégory Germain (2) , Elie Rivoalen (3)

1 LOMC - Laboratoire Ondes et Milieux Complexes
2 LCSM - Laboratoire Comportement des Structures en Mer
3 LOFIMS - Laboratoire d'Optimisation et Fiabilité en Mécanique des Structures

This paper presents numerical computations of three bladed horizontal axis marine current turbines in a uniform free upstream current. The unsteady evolution of the turbine wake is taken into account by some three-dimensional software, developed to assess the disturbances generated in the sea. An unsteady Lagrangian method is considered for these computations using "Vortex Method"; a velocityvorticity numerical implementation of the NaviereStokes equations. The vortex flow is discretised with particles carrying vorticity, which are advected in a Lagrangian frame. The present paper aims at presenting results on both power and thrust coefficient (C P and C T) predictions and wake characterisation, up to ten diameters downstream of the turbine. Moreover, two different marine current turbines configurations are considered: one is taken from literature [1] and the second one is an open-modified version of turbine inspired from previous works [2].

Domains: Engineering Sciences [physics]

Grégory Pinon, Paul Mycek, Grégory Germain, Elie Rivoalen. Numerical simulation of the wake of marine current turbines with a particle method. Renewable Energy, 2012, 46, pp.111-126. ⟨10.1016/j.renene.2012.03.037⟩. ⟨hal-03515424⟩