Utilizing Low-speed Wind Tunnel To Simulate The Interaction Between The Ocean Current And Structures

Integrating the development of the existing deep-water and ocean-energy technologies in the current situation in our country, we propose a new technique of utilizing low-speed wind tunnel to simulate the interaction between the ocean current and structures. We have implemented from simple elements to complex structures, not only with numerical simulation but also experimental research to examine and certify the theory, and achieve a relatively creditable relationship between wind speed and fluid speed. In this paper, we demonstrate in detail the possibility of simulating ocean fluent field with wind tunnel experiments, and build a foundation of experimenting tide energy in wind tunnel labs, and expanding the research achievement to develop tide electric generators.Based on the characteristics of air and water, and with the rule of similarity, initially we estimate the relationship of speeds of the these two objects under the same loading case. We use the commercial software FLUENT to do the numerical simulation the structures'loading in these two different fluent fields, in which we consider different sizes of the structures and different speeds of the fluids.The numerical simulation is based on the Navier-Stokes equation, choosing standard k-eturbulent models, with first order upwind and 3 dimensional stable solutions.We analyze the relationship of loading in these two fluid fields with different structures'size and fluid speed and estimate the relationship between these two objects'speeds.Considering the influence of different incidence angles to the platform and shielding effect, we have arranged about 800 spots to measure the pressure of the semi-submersible platform in the wind tunnel. With the fluid speed relationship we have derived, we calculate the water speed in the corresponding wind speed, and simulate the platform model under this speed numerically. Comparing the loading case of the platform with the results from the wind tunnel experiment, we proof the accuracy of the relationship between the two objects.In this paper, we propose a new, simple and possible approach to research on deep-sea technology and development of ocean energy.