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The paper discusses the development of transient sliding grid based flow driven simulation procedure for a Darrieus turbine analysis. A new
computational procedure is developed within the Ansys-CFX software that allows fast solutions with good accuracy of the results. With this
approach it is possible to determine the turbine power curve over its whole operating range at a given flow velocity in a single simulation. This
enables comparison of several different geometry parameters to find the one that extracts the most of energy of water current. The proposed
procedure allows a start-up analysis of a turbine and is also suitable to run in combination with fluid-structure interaction (FSI) analysis to
analyze the mechanical behavior of the turbine blades.
Keywords: hydrokinetic turbine, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation, flow-driven approach
its axis could be positioned vertically or horizontally providing an optimal configuration for a given set
and in both cases orthogonal to the incoming water of design parameters. The turbine design parameters
stream. Both positions have their own benefits: in were chosen following work by Shiono et al. [8],
vertical position the electric generator can be mounted where the turbine was experimentally tested with
above water level; in horizontal position on Fig. 1 it several different solidity parameters and current
is possible to have only one generator for the whole velocities. Based on previous research [9] and work
width of the channel. Because of the rectangular by Shiono et al. the helical blade configuration was
cross section of its rotor, the water Darrieus turbines not chosen for further investigation, due to its reduced
can fill a larger cross-sectional area in shallow water power coefficient and the difficult manufacturing
than horizontal axis turbines with a circular cross- procedure of such blades. The disadvantage of
section. Its advantage in tidal current extraction is also common computational approach for turbomachinery
the ability to extract current flowing in any direction simulations is the need to prescribe a set of operating
without the need for a turn. The Darrieus turbine is parameters first, such as rotational and flow velocity
also beneficial regarding blocking of the river/channel [10] to [13]. The main scope of this work is to validate
cross section, because its structure is relatively open the computational approach with a self-developed
compared to propeller turbines. The latter mainly Fortran [14] routine with experimental data in a
uses an adapted Kaplan turbine rotor that requires way similar to how Howell et al. [15] performed
guiding vanes or ducts for increased efficiency. The their comparison of experimental and computational
weaknesses of the Darrieus turbines on the other results. Our simulation approach employs flow driven
hand are relatively poor starting torque and its high turbine simulation which better corresponds to real
oscillations during [3]. To avoid these disadvantages turbine operating conditions.
different airfoil profiles, helical blades configuration,
increased number of blades or blades with variable 1.2 CFD and Flow Driven Motion
pitch might be used.
The Darrieus turbine compared to propeller In order to study the performance of the Darrieus
turbines has very complex flow around its blades turbine computationally, the numerical model has to
because of its crossflow configuration, where the account for the flow phenomena in the fluid and the
blades cross the global current twice every turn. hydrodynamic load on the turbine blades. To obtain
The flow is undisturbed on upstream side, but on the flow dependent rotation of the turbine, a physically
the downstream side it is already highly effected correct coupling algorithm between the fluid motion
due to previous blade crossing. The angle of attack and the solid body motion has to be applied.
of each blade changes constantly during operation From the physical viewpoint, the equations
but the databases of available airfoil data (lift and describing fluid flows and heat and mass transfer
drag coefficients) are limited between +15 and 15 are simply versions of the conservation laws of
[5] due to unstable operation outside this limits. physics, namely: conservation of mass in Eq. (1) and
Therefore the performance of a turbine cannot be conservation of momentum in Eq. (2) [9]:
estimated using simple lift and drag force equations.
There are also some analytical approaches for VAWT v = 0, (1)
performance prediction using different aerodynamic
Dv
models (potential flow theory, vortex theory [3], [6] = p + 2 v + S M . (2)
Dt
and [7]), but they also require airfoil coefficient data
and their results are only estimations. Therefore, the
computational fluid dynamics was employed allowing 1.2.1 Flow Driven Motion with Six Degrees of Freedom
the study of the flow field around the turbine and to (DOF) Solver
overcome the lack of previously mentioned methods.
Furthermore, the CFD allows analyzing transient A rigid body is a solid object that moves through a
simulations with ability to run them as a flow driven fluid, while its shape remains undeformed. Its motion
problem. This means that the turbine starts to move is dictated by the fluid forces and torques acting upon it
and rotates due to current flow acting on its blades. and external forces (lift, gravity, friction) and external
The simulations of flow driven Darrieus turbine have torques. In Ansys CFX [16] to [20] the computation of
not been shown in such detail yet. position and orientation of a rigid body is performed
The parametric numerical simulations also allow using equations of motion. The equations of motion of
analyzing many different turbine design parameters, a rigid body are written as:
770 Fleisinger, M. Vesenjak, M. Hriberek, M.
Strojniki vestnik - Journal of Mechanical Engineering 60(2014)12, 769-776
in further calculation of angular velocity, which [5], with chord length of 126 mm which is projected
moves the blades even faster. This means that there on a circle with the diameter of 300 mm. The solidity,
is self-amplifying effect, which drives the instability , states a relation between the blade area and the
and can be reduced with certain measures. They are turbine swept area. For a Darrieus turbine it is defined
supposed to reduce large changes of results between as [8]:
timesteps, by applying smaller timesteps, starting
n C
a solution with a pre-simulated flow field around = , (7)
D
the blades, or decreasing change of angular velocity
between time steps by applying a damp coefficient. where n represents the number of blades, C is the
For further use the simulation procedure has to be chord length of blade profile, and D is the turbine
verified and validated with experimental results. For diameter. The solidity coefficient of model is 0.4
this purpose the results from experimental testing of which corresponds to geometry tested by Shiono et al.
water Darrieus turbine done by Shiono et al. [8] was [8].
used. The fluid model consisted of water at 10 C
and the turbulence model is two-equation k SST
2 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION (shear stress transport) of Menter [17] and [18], with
turbulence equations written in tensor form:
2.1 Simulation Setup
( k )
+
(
v j k )=
Simulations with both flow driven approaches were t x j
performed on the same model in Ansys-CFX 13 [10]. k
The model of the Darrieus turbine with horizontal axis = P ' k ( + k t ) , (8)
x j x j
has three blades with the length of 0.2 and 0.3 m in
diameter and corresponds to the experimental model
used by Shiono et al. [8]. The rotating domain around ( )
+
(
v j )=
the turbine is 0.45 m in diameter. It is modelled in t x j
a non-structured manner with 5,100,000 elements,
which was determined by a preliminary mesh = P 2 ( + t ) +
independence study, where results of present mesh t x j x j
differed from finer one by 2%. The upper and lower k
blade surfaces were modelled with 52 elements, with +2 (1
F1 ) 2 . (9)
x j x j
the smallest positioned around the leading and trailing
edge, as can be seen on Fig. 3.
Therefore, we used inflation modelling with 10
layers around each blade, which is required by that
model [10].
c)
a)
d)
b)
Fig. 5. The contours of flow vx velocities on inlet and outlet of model and streamlines for two turbine positions, a) 50 and b) 110 and
corresponding velocity vectors on a middle plane c) and d)
operation. The turbine has the same blade in its et al. [8] performed measurements. Their turbine
upmost position at the beginning and at the end of was gradually loaded by electromagnetic brake and
an interval. Therefore, the turbine positions in which in each constant load level the rotating velocity and
its blades produce the most torque can be identified. torque were measured, where the result represented
It can be seen that the upmost blade starts producing an average value of a 30-second interval. In our
torque from ~50 onwards until it reaches ~100 and simulations the turbine is loaded with constantly
that pattern is then repeated periodically for every increasing torque, meaning that the turbine does not
120 for a three bladed turbine. stabilize in a steady regular manner. Also the correct
The comparison of performance curves on Fig. data of the test turbine, such as material and its
8 shows that routine-based flow-driven simulation mass moment of inertia as well as surface roughness
over-predicts the experimental results by 11.3% while were not available. Computationally, the difference
6DOF-based simulation gives 3.1% higher result between each simulation approach occurred because
at peak tip speed ratio. The routine-based results of differing flow-driven approaches. The 6DOF solver
however were following the trend of experimental is involved in internal CFX iteration loop, so the
results at nearly the same distance over the large solution of angular velocity is determined iteratively
part of the curve, while the 6DOF-based results were upon equilibrium, while in the approach with user
close to the experiment only at the peak value. The routine, the angular velocity is updated only once per
difference becomes larger in other areas. The main timestep. Therefore it represents certain disturbance,
reason for difference in results between simulations which is dependent on the rate of change of torque
and experiment is in the method by which Shiono on the blades in a timestep. This is at its greatest at
774 Fleisinger, M. Vesenjak, M. Hriberek, M.
Strojniki vestnik - Journal of Mechanical Engineering 60(2014)12, 769-776
Fig. 6. Comparison of simulation results for 6DOF and user routine flow driven simulation approach
3 CONCLUSIONS
with an adaptive user routine, therefore it can be used [9] Fleisinger, M., Zadravec, M., Vesenjak, M., Hriberek,
in combination with strongly coupled FSI simulations. M., Udovii, K. (2012). Comparison of CFD
In this way in our further research the water current simulation of Darrieus water turbine using the rigid
and the turbine could mutually interact, making it body solver and the MFR method. Kuhljevi dnevi,
Slovensko drutvo za mehaniko, Ljubljana. (in
possible to analyse the influence of blade deformation
Slovene)
on a turbine performance. For successful method
[10] Malipeddi, A.R., Chatterjee, D. (2012). Influence
application we would have to solve some issues of duct geometry on the performance of Darrieus
regarding large instabilities at the start, which could hydroturbine. Renewable Energy, vol. 43, p. 292-300,
cause some problems in FSI simulation due to large DOI:10.1016/j.renene.2011.12.008.
deformations under very high rotation velocities. [11] McTavish, S., Feszty, D. Sankar, T. (2012). Steady and
rotating computational fluid dynamics simulations of a
4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS novel vertical axis wind turbine for small-scale power
generation. Renewable Energy, vol. 41, p. 171-179,
This research was funded by SPIRIT Slovenia - Public DOI:10.1016/j.renene.2011.10.018.
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