CFD Investigation of Performance for Marine Current Turbine Based on RANS Simulations

This paper presents the 3D CFD computation of an 800mm diameter model of MCT based on structured grids, RANS equations and turbulence model. A time-accurate, upwind, finite volume method for computing compressible flows on structured grids is presented. Numerical predictions for a series of blade pitch angle settings and speeds are compared with the other simulation results of commercial software, verified by the experimental measurement of the model. Such results provide confidence in using the CFD computation tools to develop the forthcoming design of MCT.