Controlling Tip Vortices and Cavitation through Tip Permeability for Tidal Turbines

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Liu, Yabin, Tan, Junchen, Willden, Richard H. J., Tucker, Paul Gary, Viola, Ignazio Maria
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2024
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author Liu, Yabin
Tan, Junchen
Willden, Richard H. J.
Tucker, Paul Gary
Viola, Ignazio Maria
author_facet Liu, Yabin
Tan, Junchen
Willden, Richard H. J.
Tucker, Paul Gary
Viola, Ignazio Maria
contents Blade-tip vortices can lead to wakes, cavitation and noise, and their control remains a significant challenge for tidal and wind turbines. In the present work, we propose and investigate controlling tip vortices through local permeability. Blade-resolved Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes simulation has been employed on a model-scale horizontal-axis turbine, following a rigorous validation and verification process. The tip-speed ratio of the turbine varies from 4.52 to 7.54. The tip permeability is modelled by including a porous zone over the blade tip section, within which Darcy's law is applied. The results demonstrate that there is an optimal range of permeability, corresponding to a non-dimensional Darcy number, Da, of around 10^{-5}, that can substantially decrease the tip vortex intensity. The revealed flow physics show that the permeable tip treatment can effectively enlarge the vortex viscous core radius with little change to the vortex circulation. As the tip vortex intensity is significantly reduced, the permeable tip treatment can increase the minimal pressure-coefficient at the vortex core by up to 63%, which significantly alleviates the cavitation risk due to tip vortices. This approach has negligible influence on the turbine's energy-harvesting performance because the spanwise extent of the permeable tip treatment is only in the order of 0.1% turbine diameter. Our findings demonstrate this approach's great promise to break the upper tip-speed ratio limit capped by cavitation for tidal turbines. These will contribute to developing more efficient and resilient turbines.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_16418
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Controlling Tip Vortices and Cavitation through Tip Permeability for Tidal Turbines
Liu, Yabin
Tan, Junchen
Willden, Richard H. J.
Tucker, Paul Gary
Viola, Ignazio Maria
Fluid Dynamics
Blade-tip vortices can lead to wakes, cavitation and noise, and their control remains a significant challenge for tidal and wind turbines. In the present work, we propose and investigate controlling tip vortices through local permeability. Blade-resolved Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes simulation has been employed on a model-scale horizontal-axis turbine, following a rigorous validation and verification process. The tip-speed ratio of the turbine varies from 4.52 to 7.54. The tip permeability is modelled by including a porous zone over the blade tip section, within which Darcy's law is applied. The results demonstrate that there is an optimal range of permeability, corresponding to a non-dimensional Darcy number, Da, of around 10^{-5}, that can substantially decrease the tip vortex intensity. The revealed flow physics show that the permeable tip treatment can effectively enlarge the vortex viscous core radius with little change to the vortex circulation. As the tip vortex intensity is significantly reduced, the permeable tip treatment can increase the minimal pressure-coefficient at the vortex core by up to 63%, which significantly alleviates the cavitation risk due to tip vortices. This approach has negligible influence on the turbine's energy-harvesting performance because the spanwise extent of the permeable tip treatment is only in the order of 0.1% turbine diameter. Our findings demonstrate this approach's great promise to break the upper tip-speed ratio limit capped by cavitation for tidal turbines. These will contribute to developing more efficient and resilient turbines.
title Controlling Tip Vortices and Cavitation through Tip Permeability for Tidal Turbines
topic Fluid Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.16418