Modelling the wake of a tidal turbine with upstream turbulence

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-89
Author(s):  
Mikaël Grondeau ◽  
Jean-Charles Poirier ◽  
Sylvain Guillou ◽  
Yann M´ear ◽  
Philippe Mercier ◽  
...  

Tidal turbines are entering an industrial phase and farms will soon be installed. In order to optimize the power output of tidal farms, a good understanding of the interactions between the ambient turbulence and a single turbine is crucial. Computational Fluid Dynamics, and more precisely Large Eddy Simulation, is one way of acquiring such knowledge. This study proposed a comparison between a Lattice Boltzmann Method LES approach and a Navier-Stokes LES approach to model the wake of a tidal turbine. Numerical results are compared with experimental results and a relatively good concordance is observed. Differences inherent to the approaches are then pointed out.

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (22) ◽  
pp. 4273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mikaël Grondeau ◽  
Sylvain Guillou ◽  
Philippe Mercier ◽  
Emmanuel Poizot

Vertical axis tidal turbines are devices that extract the kinetic energy from tidal currents. Tidal currents can be highly turbulent. Since ambient turbulence affects the turbine hydrodynamic, it is critical to understand its influence in order to optimize tidal farms. Actuator Line Model (ALM) combined with Large Eddy Simulation (LES) is a promising way to comprehend this phenomenon. In this article, an ALM was implemented into a Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) LES solver. This implementation gives good results for predicting the wake of a vertical axis tidal turbine placed into a turbulent boundary layer. The validated numerical configuration was then used to compute the wake of a real size ducted vertical axis tidal turbine. Several upstream turbulence rates were simulated. It was found that the shape of the wake is strongly influenced by the ambient turbulence. The cost-to-precision ratio of ALM-LBM-LES compared to fully resolved LBM-LES makes it a promising way of modeling tidal farms.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 1096-1116 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Leveque ◽  
Hatem Touil ◽  
Satish Malik ◽  
Denis Ricot ◽  
Alois Sengissen

Purpose The Lattice Boltzmann (LB) method offers an alternative to conventional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods. However, its practical use for complex turbulent flows of engineering interest is still at an early stage. This paper aims to outline an LB wall-modeled large-eddy simulation (WMLES) solver. Design/methodology/approach The solver is dedicated to complex high-Reynolds flows in the context of WMLES. It relies on an improved LB scheme and can handle complex geometries on multi-resolution block structured grids. Findings Dynamic and acoustic characteristics of a turbulent airflow past a rod-airfoil tandem are examined to test the capabilities of this solver. Detailed direct comparisons are made with both experimental and numerical reference data. Originality/value This study allows assessing the potential of an LB approach for industrial CFD applications.


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