Improving the Reliability of Tidal Turbine Generator Systems

Among different ways of harnessing tidal energy, tidal stream turbines are gaining popularity over traditional tidal dams. This is owing to the lower capital cost, and potentially lower ecological impact of tidal turbines. However, compared to more developed sources of energy, tidal energy remains expensive, which impedes its large-scale...

The performance of a weir-mounted tidal turbine: Field observations and theoretical modelling

An economical way to harvest tidal energy is by integrating free stream turbines in coastal infrastructure. While numerous studies have investigated how turbines should be arranged in idealized geometries to optimize their performance, only a few have considered the influence of realistic bed features. This research investigates the influence...

Lifetime Analysis of IGBT Power Modules in Passively Cooled Tidal Turbine Converters

Thermal cycling is one of the major reasons for failure in power electronic converters. For submerged tidal turbine converters investigating this failure mode is critical in improving the reliability, and minimizing the cost of energy from tidal turbines. This paper considers a submerged tidal turbine converter which is passively cooled by...

Simulating tidal turbines with multi-scale mesh optimisation techniques

Embedding tidal turbines within simulations of realistic large-scale tidal flows is a highly multi-scale problem that poses significant computational challenges. Here this problem is tackled using actuator disc momentum (ADM) theory and Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) with, for the first time, dynamically adaptive mesh optimisation...