Hydrodynamic Characterisation of a Garman-Type Hydrokinetic Turbine

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical study of the effects of the inclination angle of the turbine rotation axis with respect to the main flow direction on the performance of a prototype hydrokinetic turbine of the Garman type. In particular, the torque and force coefficients are evaluated as a function of the turbine angular velocity and axis operation angle regarding the mainstream direction. To accomplish this purpose, transient simulations are performed using a commercial solver (ANSYS-Fluent v. 19). Turbulent features of the flow are modelled by the shear stress transport (SST) transitional turbulence model, and results are compared with those obtained with its basic version (i.e., nontransitional), hereafter called standard. The behaviour of the power and force coefficients for the various considered tip speed ratios are presented. Pressure and skin friction coefficients on the blades are analysed at each computed turbine angular speed by means of contour plots and two-dimensional profiles. Moreover, the pressure and viscous contributions to the torque and forces experienced by the hydrokinetic turbine are examined in detail. It is demonstrated that the reason behind the higher power coefficient predictions of the transitional turbulence model, close to 6% at maximum efficiency, regarding its standard counterpart, is the smaller computed viscous torque contribution in the former. As a result, the power coefficient of the inclined turbine is around 35% versus the 45% obtained for the turbine with its rotation axis parallel to flow direction.