Numerical study on extracting energy efficiency by autorotation of elliptic cylinder from low velocity flow

Abstract

A new concept of power generator using autorotation of elliptic cylinder to extract energy from fluid is proposed in the present study. Numerical simulation studies Fluid-Structure Interaction of the fixed-axis autorotation of rigid elliptic cylinder using a coupled Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) - Rigid Body Dynamics (RBD) solver. This solver requires no solid mesh to setup FSI (Fluid Structure Interaction) simulation. Based on solving two-dimensional unsteady incompressible N-S equations and SST k-ω turbulent governing equations, the power generator of elliptic cylinder was investigated in different axis rations, eccentric distance ratios and Reynolds number conditions. Numerical results reveal that autorotation of elliptic cylinder can achieve energy extraction. With optimal parameters, the power generator can reach maximum energy extraction efficiency of 34%. The investigation results provided fundamental support for utilization of ocean current energy.