Influence of inlet line shape on hydrodynamic performance of tidal energy diffuser

入口段线型影响潮流能导流增效装置水动力性能的数值模拟研究

School of Marine Science and Technology, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an 710072, China

Received: 7 July 2020

Abstract

The installation of diffuser is an important way to improve the efficiency of tidal turbines, which is promising for engineering practice. In this paper, the open source code OpenFOAM is used as the platform. Numerical simulations are carried out to investigate the influence of the performance of the diffuser for the vertical axis tidal turbines. Several different types of diffusers are designed by distinguishing the line shape. Through systematic simulations, the influence of inlet line shape on the hydrodynamics performances of tidal energy diffuser is summarized. The velocity field, pressure field, etc. are analyzed to recover the flow modifications induced by the diffuser. The best line shape is finally found which can optimize the harnessing efficiency of the tidal turbine, which provides important clues for the development of tidal energy devices.

摘要

潮流能导流增效装置能够大幅提升潮流能水轮机的能量提取效率，应用前景广阔。以OpenFOAM开源代码作为数值模拟平台，开展了垂直轴水轮机导流增效装置性能的模拟研究。针对典型垂直轴潮流能水轮机设计了多种导流增效装置，通过系统的模拟分析，总结了导流增效装置相关参数对其水动力学性能的影响，深入分析了速度场、压力场的变化规律，研究了入口段线型对水轮机导流增效装置的影响，并得到了能量提取效果最优的线型，为导流增效装置的设计提供了技术参考。