The development of a vertical axis tidal current turbine

Sammanfattning: Globally the amount of electricity produced each year is increasing significantly. Between 1980 and 2010 the average increase was 407 billion kWh per year. To be able to meet this increasing electricity demand, without burdening the environment in a too large extent, the research and development of renewable energy production techniques is of great importance. In the light of this we wanted to dedicate our master thesis to help SubseaTechnology Scandinavia AB with the development of a vertical axis tidal current turbine. The project set out to do the initial design proposal of a 2 x 4 meter H-shaped Darrieus turbine by applying the Double Multiple Streamtube model. The optimization process was performed with the aid of MATLAB for four different foils. The study included two symmetrical foils; NACA 0012 and S-1046 together with two asymmetrical foils; S-1210 and E216. The parameters studied were the number of blades, chord length, tip speed ratio, fixed pitch and the operational range. In the project, effects such as blade to wake interaction, torque fluctuations etc. were also considered. From the simulations the two bladed turbine fitted with the S-1046 hydrofoil showed the highest performance but was struggling with an unfavorable oscillating torque. In the light of this the three bladed turbine fitted with the S-1046 hydrofoil with a chord of 0.13 m and an optimal tip speed ratio of 3.2 was determined. From the simulations the power coefficient reached 53.47 % for this case. This configuration also showed good performance in a relatively wide range of both tip speed ratios and free stream velocities. The model does not include several effects causing losses and the power coefficients calculated in this model are to be used as a comparison between the different turbine configurations and not as absolute values of performance. The simulations showed good potential for the use of asymmetrical foils in vertical axis turbines. The performance was evaluated for the upstream half of the turbine where the E216 foil exceeded the symmetrical foils in the range of ten percentage points.