Power Production from a hydrokinetic device: mass of water turbine

Water current interaction with a hydrokinetic energy converter is studied by use of computational fluid dynamics. Mass of water turbine (MOWT) consists of several thin paddles attached to a conveyor, that are allowed to rotate around the hull. As the incoming current passes under the current energy converter, the paddles move to the direction of the water flow. The motion of the paddles is converted to electricity through the power take-off system of the device. In this study, a two-dimensional computational current tank is generated and the current-structure interaction of a simple geometry is studied. Good agreement between the computed forces and existing data for the same geometry are observed. The velocity and the pressure fields around the MOWT are determined and discussion is provided on the velocity and pressure distribution around the body. Moreover, the forces on individual paddles of the MOWT are computed and compared with the empirical relations. It is found that the current-induced force on the leading paddle is substantially different from that on the downstream paddles due to the change of the flow field. For efficient energy production from this device, optimization is necessary to find a suitable configuration. To obtain an optimum design of the MOWT, the effect of the configuration of the paddles is investigated by considering several combinations and assessing the current-induced loads on the paddles.