Cfd analysis and optimisation of tidal turbine arrays using openfoam®

Abstract

Tidal estuaries represent a significant and accessible source of renewable energy for modern society. The regular nature of the tides makes this a valuable resource to exploit. Tidal turbines that extract energy from tidal currents would be one way to do this. The shallow nature of estuaries suggests that these would need to be low power units linked together in large farms, and the modelling and optimisation of such farms of turbines is a significant challenge. In this chapter, I report on a major research effort to model a possible turbine, the AquaScientific Lift/Drag turbine, and the development from this of a simplified CFD model, the Immersed Body Force method, to allow for simulation of small arrays. Following from this, I report on the development of surrogate modelling techniques to allow the prediction of outputs from larger arrays and optimisation using Genetic Algorithm techniques.