IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v151y2020icp1196-1208.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Wake field study of tidal turbines under realistic flow conditions

Author

Listed:
  • Thiébot, Jérôme
  • Guillou, Nicolas
  • Guillou, Sylvain
  • Good, Andrew
  • Lewis, Michael

Abstract

Numerical modelling of the flow interactions between tidal turbines in arrays is a prerequisite to assess the energy production potential and to optimise the layout of tidal stream energy farms. It requires (i) a refined representation of the tide propagation and (ii) a reliable estimate of the flow characteristics around the turbines. The Actuator Disk (AD) theory is recognised as a reliable parameterisation to approach the far wake of fixed horizontal-axis turbines and was therefore implemented to provide recommendations as regards to the design of arrays, especially the optimal spacing between devices. However, analysis of the arrangement of tidal stream turbines are typically restricted to schematic test cases with idealised bathymetry and inflow conditions. The present study aims to investigate the flow interactions between turbines in a stream energy site with spatially- and time-varying tidal conditions. The site of application is the Alderney Race (English Channel), an area with strong potential for the exploitation of tidal energy in European shelf seas. The three-dimensional numerical model Telemac3D is used to capture the flow at both the regional and the array scales. Predictions are first assessed against ADCP measurements acquired around the island of Alderney. A series of simulations, representing turbines with the AD theory, are then performed to investigate the influence of the wake interactions on the energy production of individual devices. In those simulations, the turbines are represented with the AD theory. The zone occupied by the turbines is 20D-long and 15D-wide (D is the turbine diameter). Different layouts (isolated, aligned and staggered turbines) and different longitudinal and lateral spacings are considered to investigate the effect of the turbines’ arrangement and density on the array energy production. The results show that, for a given turbines density within the array, the staggered layout produces more than the aligned layout (+16%). When the turbines are staggered, a minimal lateral spacing of 5D is required to avoid wake overlapping. However, when the turbines are aligned, the lateral spacing has a small influence on the turbines production. It is therefore possible to pack the turbines close to each other in the lateral direction. The simulations also outline that the turbulence develops much faster within the array when the turbines are aligned.

Suggested Citation

  • Thiébot, Jérôme & Guillou, Nicolas & Guillou, Sylvain & Good, Andrew & Lewis, Michael, 2020. "Wake field study of tidal turbines under realistic flow conditions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 1196-1208.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:151:y:2020:i:c:p:1196-1208
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2019.11.129
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148119318233
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2019.11.129?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Malki, Rami & Masters, Ian & Williams, Alison J. & Nick Croft, T., 2014. "Planning tidal stream turbine array layouts using a coupled blade element momentum – computational fluid dynamics model," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 46-54.
    2. Thiébot, Jérôme & Bailly du Bois, Pascal & Guillou, Sylvain, 2015. "Numerical modeling of the effect of tidal stream turbines on the hydrodynamics and the sediment transport – Application to the Alderney Race (Raz Blanchard), France," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 356-365.
    3. Ahmed, U. & Apsley, D.D. & Afgan, I. & Stallard, T. & Stansby, P.K., 2017. "Fluctuating loads on a tidal turbine due to velocity shear and turbulence: Comparison of CFD with field data," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 235-246.
    4. Nguyen, Van Thinh & Guillou, Sylvain S. & Thiébot, Jérôme & Santa Cruz, Alina, 2016. "Modelling turbulence with an Actuator Disk representing a tidal turbine," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 625-635.
    5. Neill, Simon P. & Hashemi, M. Reza & Lewis, Matt J., 2016. "Tidal energy leasing and tidal phasing," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 580-587.
    6. Goward Brown, Alice J. & Neill, Simon P. & Lewis, Matthew J., 2017. "Tidal energy extraction in three-dimensional ocean models," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(PA), pages 244-257.
    7. Van Thinh Nguyen & Alina Santa Cruz & Sylvain S. Guillou & Mohamad N. Shiekh Elsouk & Jérôme Thiébot, 2019. "Effects of the Current Direction on the Energy Production of a Tidal Farm: The Case of Raz Blanchard (France)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-20, June.
    8. Bai, Guanghui & Li, Jun & Fan, Pengfei & Li, Guojun, 2013. "Numerical investigations of the effects of different arrays on power extractions of horizontal axis tidal current turbines," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 180-186.
    9. Coles, D.S. & Blunden, L.S. & Bahaj, A.S., 2017. "Assessment of the energy extraction potential at tidal sites around the Channel Islands," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 171-186.
    10. Fallon, D. & Hartnett, M. & Olbert, A. & Nash, S., 2014. "The effects of array configuration on the hydro-environmental impacts of tidal turbines," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 10-25.
    11. Bahaj, A.S. & Molland, A.F. & Chaplin, J.R. & Batten, W.M.J., 2007. "Power and thrust measurements of marine current turbines under various hydrodynamic flow conditions in a cavitation tunnel and a towing tank," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 407-426.
    12. Mycek, Paul & Gaurier, Benoît & Germain, Grégory & Pinon, Grégory & Rivoalen, Elie, 2014. "Experimental study of the turbulence intensity effects on marine current turbines behaviour. Part II: Two interacting turbines," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 876-892.
    13. Mycek, Paul & Gaurier, Benoît & Germain, Grégory & Pinon, Grégory & Rivoalen, Elie, 2014. "Experimental study of the turbulence intensity effects on marine current turbines behaviour. Part I: One single turbine," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 729-746.
    14. Kolekar, Nitin & Banerjee, Arindam, 2015. "Performance characterization and placement of a marine hydrokinetic turbine in a tidal channel under boundary proximity and blockage effects," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 121-133.
    15. Yang, Zhaoqing & Wang, Taiping & Copping, Andrea E., 2013. "Modeling tidal stream energy extraction and its effects on transport processes in a tidal channel and bay system using a three-dimensional coastal ocean model," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 605-613.
    16. Guillou, Nicolas & Thiébot, Jérôme, 2016. "The impact of seabed rock roughness on tidal stream power extraction," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 762-773.
    17. Guillou, Nicolas & Chapalain, Georges & Neill, Simon P., 2016. "The influence of waves on the tidal kinetic energy resource at a tidal stream energy site," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 402-415.
    18. Roc, Thomas & Conley, Daniel C. & Greaves, Deborah, 2013. "Methodology for tidal turbine representation in ocean circulation model," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 448-464.
    19. Lo Brutto, Ottavio A. & Guillou, Sylvain S. & Thiébot, Jérôme & Gualous, Hamid, 2017. "Assessing the effectiveness of a global optimum strategy within a tidal farm for power maximization," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 653-666.
    20. O’Hara Murray, Rory & Gallego, Alejandro, 2017. "A modelling study of the tidal stream resource of the Pentland Firth, Scotland," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 102(PB), pages 326-340.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chen, Yaling & Lin, Binliang & Liang, Dongfang, 2023. "Interactions between approaching flow and hydrokinetic turbines in a staggered layout," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 218(C).
    2. Christelle Auguste & Philip Marsh & Jean-Roch Nader & Remo Cossu & Irene Penesis, 2020. "Towards a Tidal Farm in Banks Strait, Tasmania: Influence of Tidal Array on Hydrodynamics," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-22, October.
    3. Zhang, Yidan & Shek, Jonathan K.H. & Mueller, Markus A., 2023. "Controller design for a tidal turbine array, considering both power and loads aspects," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 216(C).
    4. Hannah Mullings & Samuel Draycott & Jérôme Thiébot & Sylvain Guillou & Philippe Mercier & Jon Hardwick & Ed Mackay & Philipp Thies & Tim Stallard, 2023. "Evaluation of Model Predictions of the Unsteady Tidal Stream Resource and Turbine Fatigue Loads Relative to Multi-Point Flow Measurements at Raz Blanchard," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(20), pages 1-30, October.
    5. Jérôme Thiébot & Nasteho Djama Dirieh & Sylvain Guillou & Nicolas Guillou, 2021. "The Efficiency of a Fence of Tidal Turbines in the Alderney Race: Comparison between Analytical and Numerical Models," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-13, February.
    6. Auguste, Christelle & Nader, Jean-Roch & Marsh, Philip & Penesis, Irene & Cossu, Remo, 2022. "Modelling the influence of Tidal Energy Converters on sediment dynamics in Banks Strait, Tasmania," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 1105-1119.
    7. Yang, Zhixue & Ren, Zhouyang & Li, Hui & Pan, Zhen & Xia, Weiyi, 2024. "A review of tidal current power generation farm planning: Methodologies, characteristics and challenges," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    8. Federico Attene & Francesco Balduzzi & Alessandro Bianchini & M. Sergio Campobasso, 2020. "Using Experimentally Validated Navier-Stokes CFD to Minimize Tidal Stream Turbine Power Losses Due to Wake/Turbine Interactions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-26, October.
    9. Nasteho Djama Dirieh & Jérôme Thiébot & Sylvain Guillou & Nicolas Guillou, 2022. "Blockage Corrections for Tidal Turbines—Application to an Array of Turbines in the Alderney Race," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-18, May.
    10. Deb, Mithun & Yang, Zhaoqing & Wang, Taiping & Kilcher, Levi, 2023. "Turbulence modeling to aid tidal energy resource characterization in the Western Passage, Maine, USA," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 219(P1).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yang, Zhixue & Ren, Zhouyang & Li, Hui & Pan, Zhen & Xia, Weiyi, 2024. "A review of tidal current power generation farm planning: Methodologies, characteristics and challenges," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    2. Van Thinh Nguyen & Alina Santa Cruz & Sylvain S. Guillou & Mohamad N. Shiekh Elsouk & Jérôme Thiébot, 2019. "Effects of the Current Direction on the Energy Production of a Tidal Farm: The Case of Raz Blanchard (France)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-20, June.
    3. Lo Brutto, Ottavio A. & Thiébot, Jérôme & Guillou, Sylvain S. & Gualous, Hamid, 2016. "A semi-analytic method to optimize tidal farm layouts – Application to the Alderney Race (Raz Blanchard), France," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 1168-1180.
    4. Niebuhr, C.M. & Schmidt, S. & van Dijk, M. & Smith, L. & Neary, V.S., 2022. "A review of commercial numerical modelling approaches for axial hydrokinetic turbine wake analysis in channel flow," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    5. Guillou, Nicolas & Thiébot, Jérôme & Chapalain, Georges, 2019. "Turbines’ effects on water renewal within a marine tidal stream energy site," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    6. Edmunds, Matt & Williams, Alison J. & Masters, Ian & Banerjee, Arindam & VanZwieten, James H., 2020. "A spatially nonlinear generalised actuator disk model for the simulation of horizontal axis wind and tidal turbines," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    7. Marco Piano & Peter E. Robins & Alan G. Davies & Simon P. Neill, 2018. "The Influence of Intra-Array Wake Dynamics on Depth-Averaged Kinetic Tidal Turbine Energy Extraction Simulations," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-21, October.
    8. Chen, Yaling & Lin, Binliang & Lin, Jie & Wang, Shujie, 2017. "Experimental study of wake structure behind a horizontal axis tidal stream turbine," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 82-96.
    9. De Dominicis, Michela & O'Hara Murray, Rory & Wolf, Judith, 2017. "Multi-scale ocean response to a large tidal stream turbine array," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 114(PB), pages 1160-1179.
    10. Nasteho Djama Dirieh & Jérôme Thiébot & Sylvain Guillou & Nicolas Guillou, 2022. "Blockage Corrections for Tidal Turbines—Application to an Array of Turbines in the Alderney Race," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-18, May.
    11. Faizan, Muhammad & Badshah, Saeed & Badshah, Mujahid & Haider, Basharat Ali, 2022. "Performance and wake analysis of horizontal axis tidal current turbine using Improved Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 740-752.
    12. Goss, Z.L. & Coles, D.S. & Kramer, S.C. & Piggott, M.D., 2021. "Efficient economic optimisation of large-scale tidal stream arrays," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).
    13. Vinod, Ashwin & Banerjee, Arindam, 2019. "Performance and near-wake characterization of a tidal current turbine in elevated levels of free stream turbulence," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 254(C).
    14. Nicolas Guillou & Georges Chapalain, 2017. "Tidal Turbines’ Layout in a Stream with Asymmetry and Misalignment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-14, November.
    15. Craig Hill & Vincent S. Neary & Michele Guala & Fotis Sotiropoulos, 2020. "Performance and Wake Characterization of a Model Hydrokinetic Turbine: The Reference Model 1 (RM1) Dual Rotor Tidal Energy Converter," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-21, October.
    16. Chen, Yaling & Lin, Binliang & Sun, Jian & Guo, Jinxi & Wu, Wenlong, 2019. "Hydrodynamic effects of the ratio of rotor diameter to water depth: An experimental study," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 331-341.
    17. Vinod, Ashwin & Han, Cong & Banerjee, Arindam, 2021. "Tidal turbine performance and near-wake characteristics in a sheared turbulent inflow," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 840-852.
    18. Lo Brutto, Ottavio A. & Nguyen, Van Thinh & Guillou, Sylvain S. & Thiébot, Jérôme & Gualous, Hamid, 2016. "Tidal farm analysis using an analytical model for the flow velocity prediction in the wake of a tidal turbine with small diameter to depth ratio," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 347-359.
    19. Modali, Pranav K. & Vinod, Ashwin & Banerjee, Arindam, 2021. "Towards a better understanding of yawed turbine wake for efficient wake steering in tidal arrays," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 482-494.
    20. Aghsaee, Payam & Markfort, Corey D., 2018. "Effects of flow depth variations on the wake recovery behind a horizontal-axis hydrokinetic in-stream turbine," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 620-629.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:151:y:2020:i:c:p:1196-1208. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.