Study On Characteristics Of Marine Current Turbine With Co-horizontal Axis And Double Impellers

The marine current energy refers to kinetic energy of the flowing sea water and it has the advantages with a strong regularity, a steady velocity, etc.. Because the marine current turbine with a single horizontal axis has a high efficiency characteristics and can successively obtain energy from water, it has been widely used in the development and application of marine current energy. A large number of detailed studies on the marine current turbine with a single horizontal axis have been carried out by many research institutes who are studying on the utilization of the marine current in the world. Currently,the form of the marine current turbine with a horizontal axis was mostly used a single impeller and there has a few study on the marine current turbine with co-horizontal axis and double impellers.This article studied the hydrodynamic performance of the marine current turbine with co-horizontal axis and double impellers by the method of numerical simulation combined with experimental study.Firstly, the development history and sea trial of the marine current turbine with a horizontal axis were investigated, the basic theory and hydrodynamic performance analysis method of the marine current turbine with a horizontal axis were introduced.Then the 3D blade of marine current turbine was designed based on the airfoil theory, the models of single impeller and co-horizontal axis and double impellers were established in the 3D modeling software. The single impeller and the co-horizontal axis and double impellers model were imported in the numerical simulation software FLUENT, and different working conditions were simulated. The pros and cons of various performance parameters of the single impeller and the co-horizontal axis and double impellers were compared and analyzed. Finally the physical model of the marine current turbine with a single impeller and the marine current turbine with co-horizontal axis and double impellers were built, then they were taken into a small tank to make a power generation test. Various performance parameters which were obtained from the test about the single impeller and co-horizontal axis and double impellers were compared and analyzed, it was found that marine current turbine with co-horizontal axis and double impellers can obtain more power from the marine current and greatly reduce the starting current speed of turbine unit. The correctness of the numerical results of the single impeller and co-horizontal axis and double impellers of marine current turbines were proved bycomparing between numerical simulation results and experimental results.By comparing and analyzing the hydrodynamic characteristics of the marine current turbine with a single impeller and the marine current turbine with co-horizontal axis and double impellers under different operating conditions, hydrodynamic performance of the marine current turbine with co-horizontal axis and double impellers was revealed initially.Hopefully, the results could provide guidance and reference for the future research on hydrodynamic characteristics of the marine current turbine with co-horizontal axis and double impellers, and some meaningful explorations were carried out for the study of the marine current turbine with multi-impellers and the exploitation and utilization of the marine current in a high-efficiency way.