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Keywords: tidal turbine modelling, hydro-environmental impacts, power output, array configuration.

Summary

Tidal current turbines have the potential to provide a sizable proportion of global energy requirements. Installations to date have only been single devices for test purposes but commercial application will undoubtedly involve multiple devices in arrays, analogous to wind (turbine) farms. The commercial viability of such large-scale deployments will depend on two important factors, the expected energy yield, or power output, and the hydro-environmental impacts. Unfortunately, these factors exist in opposition; for example, the greater the energy extracted by a single turbine the larger the reduction in current speeds downstream of the device. In the present research a two-dimensional, depth-averaged energy extraction model developed by the authors is used to simulate a tidal turbine array at the resolution of the individual turbines. The governing equations of the two-dimensional, depth-averaged model were modified to incorporate energy extraction for horizontal-axis tidal turbines. Based on actuator disc theory, energy extraction was incorporated by considering the act of extraction as a retarding force which is evenly distributed across the turbine swept area. The high resolution model simulates both the hydrodynamic effects of individual turbines and the interactions between neighbouring turbines in an array. The model is applied to an idealised rectangular channel and used to quantify the power output from a hypothetical tidal turbine array comprising 24 devices. It is shown that the hydrodynamic interaction between turbines can significantly affect the power output of individual devices, and thus the total power yield from an array. It is also shown that careful placement of turbines can improve the power yield from the array whilst reducing its hydrodynamic impact.

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Front Page Browse CCP CSETS CTR IJRT Other Authors Search Purchase Guide FAQ Contact us	Civil-Comp Proceedings ISSN 1759-3433 CCP: 102 PROCEEDINGS OF THE FOURTEENTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CIVIL, STRUCTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING COMPUTING Edited by: Paper 111 Optimising the Configuration of Tidal Turbine Arrays With Respect to Power Output and Hydrodynamic Impacts S. Nash, D. McCaul, J. Martin and M. Hartnett Civil Engineering, College of Engineering & Informatics National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland doi:10.4203/ccp.102.111 purchase the full-text of this paper Full Bibliographic Reference for this paper S. Nash, D. McCaul, J. Martin, M. Hartnett, "Optimising the Configuration of Tidal Turbine Arrays With Respect to Power Output and Hydrodynamic Impacts", in , (Editors), "Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering Computing", Civil-Comp Press, Stirlingshire, UK, Paper 111, 2013. doi:10.4203/ccp.102.111 Keywords: tidal turbine modelling, hydro-environmental impacts, power output, array configuration. Summary Tidal current turbines have the potential to provide a sizable proportion of global energy requirements. Installations to date have only been single devices for test purposes but commercial application will undoubtedly involve multiple devices in arrays, analogous to wind (turbine) farms. The commercial viability of such large-scale deployments will depend on two important factors, the expected energy yield, or power output, and the hydro-environmental impacts. Unfortunately, these factors exist in opposition; for example, the greater the energy extracted by a single turbine the larger the reduction in current speeds downstream of the device. In the present research a two-dimensional, depth-averaged energy extraction model developed by the authors is used to simulate a tidal turbine array at the resolution of the individual turbines. The governing equations of the two-dimensional, depth-averaged model were modified to incorporate energy extraction for horizontal-axis tidal turbines. Based on actuator disc theory, energy extraction was incorporated by considering the act of extraction as a retarding force which is evenly distributed across the turbine swept area. The high resolution model simulates both the hydrodynamic effects of individual turbines and the interactions between neighbouring turbines in an array. The model is applied to an idealised rectangular channel and used to quantify the power output from a hypothetical tidal turbine array comprising 24 devices. It is shown that the hydrodynamic interaction between turbines can significantly affect the power output of individual devices, and thus the total power yield from an array. It is also shown that careful placement of turbines can improve the power yield from the array whilst reducing its hydrodynamic impact. purchase the full-text of this paper (price £20) go to the previous paper go to the next paper return to the table of contents return to the book description purchase this book (price £65 +P&P)
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