Hydrokinetic Energy: Turbine technologies and Array Deployment Optimization through CFD

这项为期五年的研究计划旨在支持基于流内水轮机的可再生能源新兴部门的发展。通过广泛的CFD模拟和实验验证，我们计划分析和改进涡轮机设计的性能，并为潮汐或河流中涡轮机阵列的最佳部署提供指导。这样做，我们也将有助于提高我们对几个具有挑战性和关键问题的基本理解，如涡轮尾流恢复机制和上游湍流或涡轮导管对这些机制的影响。***我们过去六年的研究成果为这个雄心勃勃的项目铺平了道路，该项目围绕两个主要主题，即水动力涡轮机技术和阵列部署优化，分别分为三个和四个研究项目。特别是，我们计划继续开发和优化两种跨流涡轮概念，即振荡翼型水动力涡轮和垂直轴涡轮技术。这两种类型的特点都是矩形收获面和良好的尾迹恢复机制，这使它们比旋转叶片轴流式涡轮机更有前途的设计。叶片端板、导管和扩压器增强器以及涡轮支撑结构的影响将通过我们最先进的数值模拟工具进行研究。感谢我们在维多利亚大学和渥太华国家实验室NRC/OCRE的合作者，我们还计划对小型原型进行实验验证。***在涡轮机农场的规模上，为了保持计算需求的真实性，需要一种简化的涡轮机建模方法，以可靠地考虑涡轮机在水资源（潮汐通道或河流，自由水面，水深）的三维数值模型中的存在和相互作用。我们提出的简化涡轮建模方法在功率提取和每个涡轮的湍流尾迹特征方面都要准确，在扰动流动条件下要足够鲁棒，必要时要足够灵活，可以考虑导管、扩压器和涡轮结构的影响。开发和比较简化模型所需的可靠参考数据库将通过大量高保真CFD模拟（3D DDES）生成，这要归功于Compute Canada的超级计算资源。***该研究项目将允许在这个快速发展的可再生能源领域培养至少13名学生，他们具有最先进的CFD和高性能计算（HPC）方面的技能。这个项目可能会对加拿大产生真正的积极影响，帮助加拿大实现清洁能源的多样化，帮助形成一个新的工业部门，提供令人垂涎的高科技工作岗位和巨大的出口潜力。

This five-year research program aims at supporting the development of the emerging sector of renewable energy based on in-stream water turbines. Through extensive CFD simulations with experimental validation, we plan to analyze and improve the performances of turbine designs and to provide guidelines for the optimal deployment of arrays of turbines in either tidal or river currents. Doing so, we will also contribute to improve our fundamental understanding of several challenging and critical issues such as turbine wake recovery mechanisms and the impact of upstream turbulence or turbine ducts on those mechanisms.***Our research achievements over the past six years have paved the way for this ambitious program structured around two main topics, namely, Hydrokinetic turbine technologies, and Array deployment optimization, divided respectively in three and four research projects.***In particular, we plan to continue the development and optimization of two cross-flow turbine concepts, namely the oscillating-foils hydrokinetic turbine and the vertical-axis turbine technology. Both types are characterized by a rectangular harvesting plane and favorable wake recovery mechanisms which make them more promising designs than rotating blades axial-flow turbines. The impact of blade end-plates, of duct and diffuser enhancers and of turbine supporting structure will be investigated, among other things, with our state-of-the-art numerical simulation tools. Experimental validations on small-scale prototypes are also planned thanks to our collaborators at University of Victoria and at the national laboratory NRC/OCRE in Ottawa. ***At the scale of the turbines farm, to keep the computing demands realistic, one requires a simplified turbine modelling approach to reliably take into account the presence and interactions of the turbines in a three-dimensional numerical model of the water resource (tidal channel or river, free-surface, bathymetry). The simplified turbine modeling approach we propose shall be accurate in terms of power extraction and turbulent wake signature of each turbine, in addition of being robust enough to operate in perturbed flow conditions and flexible enough to incorporate the effect of duct, diffuser enhancer and turbine structure if necessary. Reliable reference databases needed to develop and compare the simplified model will be generated with massive, high-fidelity CFD simulations (3D DDES) thanks to the supercomputing resources of Compute Canada.***This research program will permit to train at least 13 students in this rapidly growing sector of renewable energy with highly sought skills in state-of-the-art CFD and high-performance computing (HPC). This program is likely to have a true positive impact in Canada by helping to diversify its clean energy sources and by helping shape a new industry sector with coveted high-tech jobs and great exporting potentials.