Turbines

Marine Hydrokinetic (MHK) energy is an alternative to address the demand for cleaner energy sources. This study advanced numerical modeling tools and uses these to evaluate the performance of both a Tidal Turbine (TT) and an Ocean Current Turbine (OCT) operating in a variety of conditions. Inflow models are derived with current speeds ranging from 1.5 to 3 m/s and Turbulence Intensities (TI) of 5-15% and integrated into a TT simulation. An OCT simulation representing a commercial scale 20 m diameter turbine moored to the seafloor via underwater cable is enhanced with the capability to ingest Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) data and simulate fault conditions. ADCP measurements collected off the coast of Ft. Lauderdale during Hurricanes Irma and Maria were post-processed and used to characterize the OCT performance. In addition, a set of common faults were integrated into the OCT model to assess the system response in fault-induced scenarios.

A computational tool has been developed by integrating National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) codes, Sandia National Laboratories' NuMAD, and ANSYS to investigate a horizontal axis composite ocean current turbine. The study focused on the design, analysis, and life prediction of composite blade considering random ocean current, cyclic rotation, and hurricane-driven ocean current. A structural model for a horizontal axis FAU research OCT blade was developed. Following NREL codes were used: PreCom, BModes, ModeShape, AeroDyn and FAST. PreComp was used to compute section properties of the OCT blade. BModes and ModeShape calculated the mode shapes of the blade. Hydrodynamic loading on the OCT blade was calculated by modifying the inputs to AeroDyn and FAST. These codes were then used to obtain the dynamic response of the blade, including blade tip displacement, normal force (FN) and tangential force (FT), flap and edge bending moment distribution with respect to blade rotation.

This work incorporates previous work done by Guerra and the application of fluid dynamics. The structure attached to the turbine will cause unsteady fluctuations in the flow, and ultimately affect the acoustic pressure. The work of Guerra is based on a lot of assumptions and simplifications to the geometry of the turbine and structure. This work takes the geometry of the actual turbine, and uses computational fluid dynamic software to numerically model the flow around the turbine structure. Varying the angle of the attack altered the results, and as the angle increased the noise levels along with the sound pulse, and unsteady loading increased. Increasing the number of blades and reducing the chord length both reduced the unsteady loading.

This thesis deals with corrosion problems of underwater turbines in marine environment. The effect of a tensile stress on the uniform corrosion rate of a metal bar is studied, and an analytical model predicting the time of service of a bar under a tensile load in a corrosive environment is proposed. Stress corrosion relationships are provided for different type of alloys, and different types of relationships. Dolinskii's and Gutman's models are studied and extended to a general order polynomial, along with a Least Square and Spline Interpolation of the experimental data. In a second part, the effect of the passive film, delaying the initiation of the corrosion process, is studied. Finally, an algorithm predicting the time of service of a cracked bar is provided, using the stress corrosion assumption, along with a validation using experimental data.

The study presents a reliability-based fatigue life prediction model for the ocean current turbine rotor blades. The numerically simulated bending moment ranges based on the measured current velocities off the Southeast coast line of Florida over a one month period are used to reflect the short-term distribution of the bending moment ranges for an idealized marine current turbine rotor blade. The 2-parameter Weibull distribution is used to fit the short-term distribution and then used to obtain the long-term distribution over the design life. The long-term distribution is then used to determine the number of cycles for any given bending moment range. The published laboratory test data in the form of an ε-N curve is used in conjunction with the long-term distribution of the bending moment ranges in the prediction of the fatigue failure of the rotor blade using Miner's rule. The first-order reliability method is used in order to determine the reliability index for a given section modulus over a given design life. The results of reliability analysis are then used to calibrate the partial safety factors for load and resistance.

This work seeks to understand water turbine noise generation and to make preliminary estimations of the noise levels. Any structure attached to a turbine upstream its blades will generate unsteady fluctuating loads on the blade's surface, which are proportional to the radiated acoustic pressure. The noise levels of a simplified turbine based on existing designs surpass the ambient noise levels of the ocean at low frequencies (< 20 Hz) by approximately 50 dB ref 1 μPa and stay under the ambient noise levels at higher frequencies for a blade-passing frequency of 0.83 Hz and point of observation (100 m, 45 degrees, 45 degrees) from the hub. Streamlining the cross-section of the upstream structure as well as reducing its width decrease the noise levels by approximately 40 dB ref 1 μPa, at low frequencies and moderately increase them at higher frequencies. Increasing the structure-rotor distance decreases the noise levels with increasing frequencies (> 30 Hz).

The success of harnessing energy from ocean current will require a reliable structural design of turbine blade that is used for energy extraction. In this study we are particularly focusing on the fatigue life of a 3m length ocean current turbine blade. The blade consists of sandwich construction having polymeric foam as core, and carbon/epoxy as face sheet. Repetitive loads (Fatigue) on the blade have been formulated from the randomness of the ocean current associated with turbulence and also from velocity shear. These varying forces will cause a cyclic variation of bending and shear stresses subjecting to the blade to fatigue. Rainflow Counting algorithm has been used to count the number of cycles within a specific mean and amplitude that will act on the blade from random loading data. Finite Element code ANSYS has been used to develop an S-N diagram with a frequency of 1 Hz and loading ratio 0.1 Number of specific load cycles from Rainflow Counting in conjunction with S-N diagram from ANSYS has been utilized to calculate fatigue damage up to 30 years by Palmgren-Miner's linear hypothesis.