Design And Numerical Simulation Research Of Hydro-turbine Generator Based On Ocean Wave And Current Energy

With the rapid development of global economy, the traditional non-renewablefossil fuels have been gradually exhausted along with the development of industrygrowing energy crisis, and with more nervous energy supply situation in our country.Fossil fuels have caused serious air pollution and green house problems, whichinfluenced people’s life styles. And the problems have caused the world’s attention andconcerns. It is very necessary to find a new kind of renewable clean energy that replacethe traditional fossil fuels.Now the worldwide renewable energy exploitation which is matured and is undercommercial operation consists of solar energy and wind energy. While ocean energy isa renewable、clean and natural energy that is contained in the ocean. It is mainly aboutocean tidal energy; current energy; wave energy; thermal gradient energy and so on.And these forms of energy are contained in the ocean with forms of giant kineticenergy、potential energy and chemical energy. Therefore, it has a promising future ifthere is a method that can accumulate these huge energy.Our project developed a miniaturized modular turbine marine energy generationdevice, which based on current serious energy status quo and the research foundationof ocean renewable energy exploitation. With the establishment of the program,3Dmodeling and simulation, prototype production and processing, performance tests ofkey components and prototype flume tests, the project has achieved big progress. Withturbine which is circular evenly arranged vane typed as its wave flow capturing device，and through the spindle which fixedly mounted with the turbine, transmitting thecaptured energy directly to the generator which is mounted at the end of the spindle,eventually the entire device achieves single-stage transmission, and overcomes theproblems such as low conversion efficiency and complicated structure in comparisonwith the traditional multi-stage conversion power generation device. The entire deviceachieves offshore running by buoys floating, anchor chain mooring and data remote controlling systems. The device can extend to the multiple complementary powersupply system with offshore wind, solar and so on, and achieve integrated system toreefs with low-cost power supply, desalination and sewage treatment, which has a goodprospect.The paper gives a review of the current serious energy supply situation and theimportance of ocean renewable energy exploitation, introduces the status quo andprogress of home and abroad ocean wave energy and current energy exploitation indetails, and presents our project “design and numerical simulation research of turbinegeneration device based on ocean wave and current energy”, and finally gives theoryanalysis about the feasibility of our project that has been designed.Then design method of turbine generation device based on ocean wave andcurrent energy is introduced. The design tasks are about selection of the generationdevice scheme and choice of key components of the device as well as theoreticalresearch about hydrodynamic characteristics of the device.2d and3d math model ofgeneration systems have been established, and foundation of experimental research andnumerical simulation analysis of the device has been provided.Finite element analysis research about key components of the generation device isalso introduced. The method “finite element analysis”(FEA) that is frequently usedduring engineering force analysis is systematically introduced as well as the solveranalysis module of software ANSYS which is about a piece of software for finiteelement analysis. This part includes FEA on the spindle of the device and theoreticaldesign and numerical simulation research about the buoy of the generation device.Hydrodynamic numerical simulation of the turbine generation device is presentedin details and the project establish the control equations of fluid mechanics, selectnumerical simulation methods and do simulation research of fluid dynamics based onsoftware Fluent6.3, introduce the module establishment of the turbine blades and themesh generation methods. With the software Fluent6.3simulation functions,hydrodynamics analysis about number of turbine blade、the blade mounting angle andthe torque and force that the blades undertake in the fluid field has been executed,which will provide technical supports and design references for later optimizationdesign of the generation device.The last is mainly about experimental research and results analysis of thedeveloped ocean energy generation device, with lab experiment about the prototype, generation performance has been analyzed, and also, secondary optimization designhas been made to make sure that the prototype device is desired before field test at sea.The two kinds of results that have been tested respectively at sea and in the lab haveare compared together to verify the reasonability of the project design. The project hasaccumulated lots of research methods and the experience, which will make a solidfoundation for future ocean energy exploitation research.