Actuator Disc Model of a Tidal In-Stream Energy Converter – Voith Hytide®

摘要

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) represents an auxiliary tool forthe purpose of supporting the development process in the early stage.Since running a transient simulation using a full-resolution rotor requiresa high computing capacity, the need for such a high level of detail has tobe scrutinized. Depending on the specific application, less level of detailmight lead to the same results within a shorter computing time. Toconsider just one example, a park simulation of several turbines servesas a positioning assessment resulting in the highest economic reliability.In this case, the focus is being on the realistic depiction of the far wakerather than on the actual flow dynamics at the rotor blades.For the purpose of assessing and analyzing the turbine’s performance ina tenable computing time, an Actuator Disc approach has beenimplemented into a CFD simulation model in ANSYS CFX by VoithHydro. The model constitutes a compromise between the numerical fullresolution setup (CFD) and the analytical blade element momentumtheory (BEM).This article introduces the developed Actuator Disc model in bothphysical and numerical terms. It deals with the numericalimplementation in the CFD simulation code and the subsequentverification of the model with an analytical BEM tool and full resolutionCFD simulation.