Flexible blades for tidal turbines

Ignazio Maria Viola; Susan Tully; Jean-Baptiste Richon; Abel Arredondo Galeana; Rowan Muir

Flexible blades for tidal turbines

Ignazio Maria Viola, Susan Tully, Jean-Baptiste Richon, Abel Arredondo Galeana, Rowan Muir

Naval Architecture, Ocean And Marine Engineering

Research output: Contribution to conference › Paper › peer-review

Abstract

The combination of highly turbulent flow and wave-induced currents within a tidal stream leads to continuous load variations on the blades of tidal turbines and limits their survivability and fatigue endurance. We propose the use of flexible turbine blades to decrease the amplitude of the load fluctuations and thus increase their durability. We developed a numerical model of a turbine blade; we show the extreme flow variations that it experiences and we show that a blade with a flexible trailing edge can result in reduced amplitude load fluctuations. Preliminary results of ongoing complementary experiments have confirmed the predicted trends.

Original language	English
Publication status	Published - 23 Apr 2015
Event	4th Oxford Tidal Energy Workshop - Oxford, United Kingdom Duration: 23 Mar 2015 → 24 Mar 2015

Workshop

Workshop	4th Oxford Tidal Energy Workshop
Abbreviated title	OTE2015
Country/Territory	United Kingdom
City	Oxford
Period	23/03/15 → 24/03/15

Keywords

flexible blades
tidal turbines

Cite this

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title = "Flexible blades for tidal turbines",

abstract = "The combination of highly turbulent flow and wave-induced currents within a tidal stream leads to continuous load variations on the blades of tidal turbines and limits their survivability and fatigue endurance. We propose the use of flexible turbine blades to decrease the amplitude of the load fluctuations and thus increase their durability. We developed a numerical model of a turbine blade; we show the extreme flow variations that it experiences and we show that a blade with a flexible trailing edge can result in reduced amplitude load fluctuations. Preliminary results of ongoing complementary experiments have confirmed the predicted trends.",

keywords = "flexible blades, tidal turbines",

author = "Viola, {Ignazio Maria} and Susan Tully and Jean-Baptiste Richon and {Arredondo Galeana}, Abel and Rowan Muir",

year = "2015",

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day = "23",

language = "English",

note = "4th Oxford Tidal Energy Workshop, OTE2015 ; Conference date: 23-03-2015 Through 24-03-2015",

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TY - CONF

T1 - Flexible blades for tidal turbines

AU - Viola, Ignazio Maria

AU - Tully, Susan

AU - Richon, Jean-Baptiste

AU - Arredondo Galeana, Abel

AU - Muir, Rowan

PY - 2015/4/23

Y1 - 2015/4/23

N2 - The combination of highly turbulent flow and wave-induced currents within a tidal stream leads to continuous load variations on the blades of tidal turbines and limits their survivability and fatigue endurance. We propose the use of flexible turbine blades to decrease the amplitude of the load fluctuations and thus increase their durability. We developed a numerical model of a turbine blade; we show the extreme flow variations that it experiences and we show that a blade with a flexible trailing edge can result in reduced amplitude load fluctuations. Preliminary results of ongoing complementary experiments have confirmed the predicted trends.

AB - The combination of highly turbulent flow and wave-induced currents within a tidal stream leads to continuous load variations on the blades of tidal turbines and limits their survivability and fatigue endurance. We propose the use of flexible turbine blades to decrease the amplitude of the load fluctuations and thus increase their durability. We developed a numerical model of a turbine blade; we show the extreme flow variations that it experiences and we show that a blade with a flexible trailing edge can result in reduced amplitude load fluctuations. Preliminary results of ongoing complementary experiments have confirmed the predicted trends.

KW - flexible blades

KW - tidal turbines

M3 - Paper

T2 - 4th Oxford Tidal Energy Workshop

Y2 - 23 March 2015 through 24 March 2015

ER -

Flexible blades for tidal turbines

Abstract

Workshop

Keywords

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Cite this