Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Publication
    Numerical study of ducted turbines in shallow water environment
    (Penerbit UTHM, 2023)
    Azzim Rosli
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    ;
    Ayu Abdul-Rahman
    ;
    Najwa Syafiqa Marzuki
    ;
    Wan Muhammad Fadhli
    ;
    Syafiq Misran
    ;
    Ramadhan Ahmed Ramadhan Basiddiq
    The development of tidal turbines, particularly for shallow water applications, is still in its early stages. Vertical axis tidal turbines (VATT) are often preferred for shallow water due to the bidirectional nature of tidal currents. Implementing a channelling system around a tidal turbine can significantly stabilise the flow field, increase the current velocity, and enhance the energy efficiency of the turbine. However, there has been limited exploration of using channelling techniques to improve the performance of VATTs in turbid areas. This study employs a numerical analysis using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to investigate VATTs. The VATT model is represented by a cylindrical object with a diameter and height of 5 meters. The simulation focuses on the wake characteristics and the design of turbine arrays. The Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations are utilised as flow viscous solvers in ANSYS Fluent, and the effectiveness of the ducts in energy conversion is calculated using the realizable two-layer turbulence model. The primary objective of this study is to examine the impact of converging devices on tidal turbine performance and propose an optimal design for shallow water applications. The proposed ducted design shows an increase in current speed passing through the device by 11.1%. Although the wake generated by the multi-row staggered array layout disperses the flow to the side of the domain, the model demonstrates a 0.9% improvement in velocity magnitude. Conversely, the results for the single-row inline layout indicate the most favorable arrangement for shallow water applications, with a 19.4% increase in velocity magnitude and a shorter wake generation.
  • Publication
    Statistical analysis on the near-wake region of RANS turbulence closure models for vertical axis tidal turbine
    ( 2022)
    Muhammad Wafiuddin Abd Rahim
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    ;
    Ayu Abdul-Rahman
    ;
    ; ;
    The flow field in the near wake region (up to six turbine diameters downstream) of a tidal current turbine is strongly driven by the combined wake of the device support structure and the rotor. Accurate characterisation of the near-wake region is important, but it is dominated by highly turbulent, slow-moving fluid. At present, limited number of research has been undertaken into the characterisation of the near-wake region for a Vertical Axis Tidal Turbine (VATT) device using the Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) model in the shallow water environment of Malaysia. This paper presents a comprehensive statistical analysis using the Mean Absolute Error (MEA), Mean Squared Error (MSE) and Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) on the near-wake region for shallow water application by comparing numerical solutions (i.e., different types of RANS turbulence models using Ansys Fluent) with published experimental data. Seven RANS turbulence models with a single VATT, represented by using a cylindrical object, were employed in the preliminary study. The statistical analysis performed in this study is essential in exploring and giving a detailed understanding on the most suitable RANS turbulence model to be improved, specifically on its near-wake region. In this study, the near wake region is defined as D ≤ 6, where D is the device diameter. The analysis shows that the RANS numerical solutions are unable to accurately replicate the near-wake region based on large statistical errors computed. The average RMSE of near-wake region at z/D = [2, 3, 4, 6] are 0.5864, 0.4127, 0.4344 and 0.3577 while the average RMSE at far-wake region z/D = [8, 12] are 0.2269 and 0.1590, where z is the distance from the cylindrical object along the length of domain. The statistical error values are found to decrease with increasing downstream distance from a cylindrical object. Notably, the standard k–ε and realizable k–ε models are the two best turbulent models representing the near-wake region in RANS modelling, yielding the lowest statistical errors (RMSE at z/D = [2, 3, 4, 6] are 0.5666, 0.4020, 0.4113 and 0.3455) among the tested parameters
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