Concept design and simulation analysis of floating water turbine

Abstract

Researchers in Malaysia are attempting to advance and develop the renewable energy sector in response to increased emissions, fossil fuel exhaustion, and the need for electricity in remote areas. Water turbines are known to have a high potential for generating electricity. This paper aims to propose a new concept of floating turbines and analyse it by using the CFD (Computer Fluid Dynamic) method. Finding the idea started with infaring the market needs in Malaysia and transforming them into design requirements by utilising tools like the requirement table and the objective tree. After that, the requirements are changed to a function box to understand the functionality of the turbine. A task specification table is implemented to assign the specifications and create four concepts. One of the four concepts is chosen using the evaluation chart to undergo CFD analysis. The selected concept is validated using the dynamic mesh technique in Ansys Fluent. A grid independence study and boundary sensitivity study are conducted to ensure the accuracy of the solution. The sliding mesh technique measures the performance of the turbine. It was found that the turbine showed higher performance than typical Savonius turbines, from 0.1 to 0.42 and 0.8 to 1.3  (Turbine Performance) and TSR (Tip Speed Ratio) respectively.