Computational Fluid Dynamics and Visualisation of Coastal Flows in Tidal Channels Supporting Ocean Energy Development

Energies

Enayatollah Zangiabadi¹  Matt Edmunds²  Iain A. Fairley¹  Michael Togneri¹  Alison J. Williams¹  Ian Masters¹  Nick Croft¹ 

[1] Marine Energy Research Group, Swansea University, Singleton Park, Swansea SA2 8PP, UK;

关键词: renewable energy;    tidal stream turbine;    real bathymetry;    turbulence;   

DOI  :  10.3390/en8065997

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Flow characteristics in coastal regions are strongly influenced by the topography of the seabed and understanding the fluid dynamics is necessary before installation of tidal stream turbines (TST). In this paper, the bathymetry of a potential TST deployment site is used in the development of the a CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) model. The steady state k-ϵ and transient Large Eddy Simulation (LES) turbulence methods are employed and compared. The simulations are conducted with a fixed representation of the ocean surface, i.e., a rigid lid representation. In the vicinity of Horse Rock a study of the pressure difference shows that the small change in height of the water column is negligible, providing confidence in the simulation results. The stream surface method employed to visualise the results has important inherent characteristics that can enhance the visual perception of complex flow structures. The results of all cases are compared with the flow data transect gathered by an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP). It has been understood that the k-ϵ method can predict the flow pattern relatively well near the main features of the domain and the LES model has the ability to simulate some important flow patterns caused by the bathymetry.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland