TIDAL CURRENT TURBINES

NASIR MEHMOOD, SHENG QIHU, WANG XIAOHANG, ZHANG LIANG College of Shipbuilding Engineering Harbin Engineering University Harbin, China ABSTRACT

Today, the world is heavily dependent on fossil fuels, as most of the energy requirements are being met through conventional methods of burning these fuels. The energy demand is increasing day with growing population. Consequently, fossil fuel reserves are depleting continuously and will soon run out in coming years. Therefore, renewable energy resources have gained enormous attention in recent years. The growing interest in exploring tidal current technologies has many compelling reasons such as its renewable nature, tidal energy is cleaner than fossil fuels, intermittent but predictable, security and diversity of supply, and limited social and environmental impacts. Tidal current technologies are still in development phase, yet need some time to mature to prove their full potential. Tidal current turbine is an important tidal current technology. The purpose of this paper is to present a comprehensive review of tidal current turbine, its potential and associated challenges. The paper discusses general theoretical background of fluid flow in a tidal stream and forces governing the flow behavior. The author will also discuss the core issues and challenges faced in research and development such as unforgiving marine environment, corrosion, cavitation phenomena and extreme structural loads.
KEY WORDS

Ocean power, Tidal power, Tidal current turbines, Tidal current devices

1. INTRODUCTION

The primary thirst of worlds energy requirement has always been fulfilled by fossil fuels. This world of ours is worryingly dependent on fossil fuels, as most of the energy requirements are met by burning fossil fuels. Dependence on fossil fuels is swelling with growing population as energy demand is increasing, thus mounting burden on fossil fuel reserves. It is therefore a matter of deep concern that these reserves will soon run out in coming years. Immense dependence on fossil not only augments the issues like security of supply, but also harms the environment. Fossil fuels are the main source of CO2 emission. The growing interest in exploring tidal current technologies has compelling reasons like its cleaner than fossil fuels, intermittent but predictable, security and diversity of supply, and limited social and environmental impacts. In 1980, more than a thousand patents were registered for converting wave energy into power [1]. However, the concept is very old, one of the earliest patents was registered by a Frenchman and his son Girard in 1799 [2]. Research on wave energy is underway around the globe (e.g [3-10]) and this technology has been tested in many countries around the world [11-12]. The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of tidal current turbine, its potential and associated challenges. This paper gives an overview of some basic fluid dynamics concepts along with the force acting on a

fluid. It will also present important challenges to the development of these technologies.

2. BASIC FLUID DYNAMICS CONCEPTS 2.1 Dynamic and Kinematic Viscosity

Dynamic viscosity, also referred as absolute viscosity, is the fluids resistance to flow [13]. Water has a dynamic viscosity of about 0.001 Kg/ms. Kinematic viscosity is the ratio of dynamic viscosity to the inertial force. Kinematic viscosity is defined as the resistance by fluid to applied force at a molecular level. Mathematically: = / (1) where is kinematic viscosity, is dynamic viscosity and is density.
2.2 Forces Acting on a Fluid

Different materials respond differently to same stress conditions due to different material properties. The results are elastic, plastic, fracture and viscous deformation. Elastic deformation is recoverable where as others are not. Water, a viscous substance, responds to stress by flowing. The rate of deformation (flow) is a function of the magnitude of stress [14]. Mathematically: = du/dz (2) where is the shear stress, du/dz is the velocity gradient and is dynamic viscosity. In case of water, stress has a direct relationship with velocity gradient, thus it is called a Newtonian fluid. In a fluid domain, forces acting on a fluid are explained below. These forces may be present as a single force or have a combined effect on a fluid.
2.2.1 Inertial Force and Viscous Force

Inertial force is equal to the product of mass and acceleration of the flowing fluid and acts in the direction opposite to the direction of acceleration. Inertial forces cause destabilization in fluids behavior. This force is present in all fluid flow conditions. Viscous force is equal to the product of shear stress () due to viscosity and surface area of the flow, where viscosity has an important role to play. Viscous forces are responsible for stabilizing effect on a fluid [15].
2.2.2 Gravity and Pressure Force

Gravity force is equal to the product of mass and acceleration due to gravity of the flowing fluid. This force is present in case of open surface flow. Pressure force is equal to the product of pressure intensity and crosssectional area of the flowing fluid. This force is present in case of pipe flow.
2.2.3 Surface Tension and Elastic Force

Surface tension force is equal to the products of surface tension and length of surface of the flowing fluid. Elastic force is the product of elastic stress and area of the flowing fluid. In any case of fluid flow, the above mentioned forces may not always be present and these forces are not of equal magnitude. There is always one or two forces which dominates the other forces. These dominating forces govern the flow of fluid.
2.3 Laminar and Turbulent Flow

Laminar flow is coherent where stabilizing viscous forces dominate the destabilizing inertial forces. In laminar flow, transfer of momentum through fluid occurs at molecular level. Equation (2) is also used to describe laminar flow.

Turbulent flow is chaotic where inertial destabilizing forces dominate the stabilizing viscous forces. In turbulent flow, whole packets of water are transferred during transfer of momentum [16]. Mathematically: = Kz du/dz (3) where Kz is eddy viscosity and du/dz is the velocity gradient.
2.4 Steady and Unsteady Flow

In a channel when velocity, pressure, density of fluid remain unchanged with respect to time, the flow is known as steady flow. If one or more of these characteristics change, then flow is called unsteady flow [17]. Mathematically: (V/x) x0,y0,z0 = 0 (V/x) x0,y0,z0 0 (P/x) x0,y0,z0 = 0 (P/x) x0,y0,z0 0 (4) (/x) x0,y0,z0 = 0 (/x) x0,y0,z0 0 Steady Flow Unsteady Flow where V is the velocity, P is the pressure, is the density and (x0,y0,z0) is a fixed point in fluid channel.
2.5 Uniform Flow and Nonuniform Flow

When the depth or the average velocity of flow is constant along the distance at any given time, the flow is known as uniform flow. If one or more of these parameters change, the flow is called nonuniform flow [18]. Mathematically it can be expressed as: (y/x or u/x)t = t0 = 0 Uniform flow (5) (y/x or u/x)t = t0 0 Non uniform flow where y is depth and u is average velocity.
2.6 Critical, Supercritical and Subcritical Flow

Speed of the surface wave depends on the square root of the product of acceleration due to gravity and the water depth [19]. Thus ability of the surface wave to travel upstream, against the current, depends upon the water depth and gravity. Critical, supercritical and subcritical flows occur in open channel flow and is usually defined by Froudes number (Fr). When the surface wave travels upstream with same celerity as current it is called critical flow (Fr=1). In supercritical flow, surface wave is unable to progress upstream against current (Fr>1). While when surface wave travels upstream against current it is known as subcritical flow (Fr<1).
2.7 Reynolds Number

Reynolds number represents the ratio of inertial forces to viscous forces. For open channel flow Reynolds number can be written as: Re = 4RU/ (6) where R = Area of flow / wetted perimeter and U is the velocity and is viscosity. Reynolds number is a dimensionless number. It is used to describe whether the flow is laminar or turbulent. The transition zone separates laminar and turbulent flow represented by the critical Reynolds number, typically about 500 12,500 [20].
2.8 Froude Number

Froude number represents the ratio of inertial forces to stabilizing gravity force. Mathematically: Fr = U/gh (7) Froude number is also a dimensionless number. It is used to describe whether the flow is supercritical (Fr>1), critical (Fr=1) or subcritical (Fr<1) [21].

3. CLASSIFICATION OF OCEAN POWER AND TIDAL CURRENT DEVICES

Ocean power, being an embryonic energy solution, has enormous potential for future energy production. Ocean power technologies are relatively new and applications are developing at very fast pace. As a result, concrete boundaries for classification, applications and conversion concepts have yet to be defined. This section is devoted to presenting these issues keeping in view current available literature and industrial trends. Ocean power can be categorized based on tidal rise and fall, tidal/ocean currents, waves, salinity gradient and thermal gradient, shown in Fig 1 [22]. Classification of tidal power, also referred as tidal energy is shown in Fig 2. that includes tidal current devices, tidal barrage and tidal fence.
Tidal Power/Tidal Energy Tidal Current Devices Tidal Barrage Tidal Fence

Horizontal Axis Turbines Vertical Axis Turbines Cross Flow Turbines Diffuser Augmented Turbines Oscillating Hydrofoil

Fig 1. Classification of ocean power.

Fig 2. Classification of tidal power.

4. CHALLENGES TO DEVELOPMENT 4.1 Corrosion

Corrosion is defined as it is the electrochemical oxidation of a metal [23]. Corrosion can be explained as reversion of any metal to its ore form. Marine corrosion depends on numerous factors such as temperature, galvanic interactions, alloy surface films, biofouling, water chemistry, alloy composition, microbiological organisms, geometry and surface roughness etc. [24]. It is vital to understand how these factors affect marine corrosion to design a robust support structure for tidal current turbine. Generally, corrosion in seawater accelerates with increase in temperature. Other catalysts such as concentration of oxygen and marine biological activity should also be considered. The solubility of oxygen decreases with the increase in temperature. Corrosion of metals in seawater is also affected by the turbulent or laminar flow. Corrosion rate may accelerate with fluid flow by taking off the protective film or migration of deleterious species or by enhancing diffusion. On the other hand, increased fluid flow may also help decrease corrosion by removing the aggressive ions that begins to accumulate on metal surface. Generally, cavitation and erosion-corrosion are forms of flow influenced corrosion.
4.2 Cavitation

Cavitation occurs in liquids flowing at high velocity, causing a pressure drop after a body that leads to formation of vapor bubbles. When the static pressure of the liquid falls below the vapor pressure cavitation phenomena starts. The liquid pressure has two components, static and dynamic. Dynamic pressure is due to liquid flow velocity and static pressure is the actual fluid pressure. Formation of

vapor bubble or boiling is a function of static pressure. Cavitation mostly occurs near the fast moving blades of the turbine. The reason being fast moving blades, local dynamic head increases and thus static pressure falls. Bubble formation in cavitation is not the major issue, the major issue is the breakdown of these bubbles as they generate high frequency pressure wave which is very damaging. The breakdown of these bubbles near the blade surface causes erosion on the surface, also termed as cavitation erosion. Small sized bubbles only damage the blade surface of the blade and do not cause efficiency drop. Large sized bubbles reduce the efficiency of the turbine, since big size bubbles disturb the fluid flow and cause flow separation.
4.3 Extreme Loading conditions

Tidal current turbines are exposed to extreme structural loading conditions in marine environment. Seawater has a density of approximately 1025 kg/m3 so the forces acting on the turbine and support structure are enormous. Turbines facing the flow direction of seawater are exposed to a thrust force while extracting kinetic energy from the flow stream. As the blades of the turbine rotate to extract the available energy, there is a change in momentum between the upside and downside of the turbine. This change in momentum exerts a force on the turbine and its support structure. This thrust force has to be absorbed by the support structure. The thrust force encountered by tidal current turbines is expressed as: Tmax = 0.5 ACtV2max (8) where is the density of the fluid, A is the cross sectional area, Ct is the thrust coefficient.

5. CONCLUSION

Due to depleting fossil fuel resources, their rising cost and adverse environmental effects; the world is obligated to find alternate energy resources. Tidal current technologies are answer to mankind worse fears of energy resources depletion. The author has presented the core issues such as corrosion, cavitation and extreme loading conditions; which pose major challenges as these technologies develop today, and will continue to be vital in recent future. In addition, issues such as underwater sealing, deployment and retrieval of these systems, optimization of resources involved in installation and retrieval, routine maintenance and long term impact of presently unseen and minor environmental factors are important and these aspects require further exploration.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research is financially supported by National Special foundation for Ocean commonweal (grant 200805040), S&T program (grant 2008BAA15B06) and for Ocean Renewable Energy (grants GHME2010GC02, GHME2010GC03), and 111 Project foundation from State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of China and Ministry of Education of China (grant B07019).

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