Adaptive Composites for Load Control in Marine Turbine Blades

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramona B. Barber ◽  
Craig S. Hill ◽  
Pavel F. Babuska ◽  
Alberto Aliseda ◽  
Richard Wiebe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Composite Structures ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Frp Composites ◽  
Hydrokinetic Turbines ◽  
Hydrokinetic Turbine ◽  
Marine Hydrokinetic ◽  
Strength And Stiffness ◽  
Adaptive Composites ◽  
Composite Blades ◽  
Adaptive Composite

Marine hydrokinetic turbines typically operate in harsh, strongly dynamic conditions. All components of the turbine system must be extremely robust and able to withstand large and constantly varying loads; the long and relatively slender blades of marine turbines are especially vulnerable. Because of this, modern marine turbine blades are increasingly constructed from fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composites. Composite materials provide superior strength- and stiffness-to-weight ratios and improved fatigue and corrosion resistance compared to traditional metallic alloys. Additionally, it is possible to tailor the anisotropic properties of FRP composites to create an adaptive pitch mechanism that will adjust the load on the turbine in order to improve system performance, especially in off-design or varying flow conditions. In this work, qualitative fundamentals of composite structures are discussed with regards to the design of experimental scale adaptive pitch blades. The load-deformation relationship of flume-scale adaptive composite blades are characterized experimentally under static loading conditions, and dynamic loading profiles during flume testing are reported. Two sets of adaptive composite blades are compared to neutral pitch composite and rigid aluminum designs. Experimental results show significant load adjustments induced through passive pitch adaptation, suggesting that adaptive pitch composite blades could be a valuable addition to marine hydrokinetic turbine technology.

Passive Pitch Control of Horizontal Axis Marine Hydrokinetic Turbine Blades

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael R. Motley ◽  
Ramona B. Barber
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Energy ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Horizontal Axis ◽  
Pitch Control ◽  
Fluid Forces ◽  
Hydrokinetic Turbines ◽  
Energy Technologies ◽  
Hydrokinetic Turbine ◽  
Marine Hydrokinetic

As the need for clean and renewable energy becomes greater, alternative energy technologies are becoming more and more prevalent. To that end, there has been a recent increase in research on marine hydrokinetic turbines to assess their potential as a reliable source of energy production and to expedite their implementation. These turbines are typically constructed from fiber reinforced composites and are subject to large, dynamic fluid forces. One of the benefits of composite materials is that the bend-twist deformation behavior can be hydroelastically tailored such that the blades are able to passively change their pitch to adapt to the surrounding flow, creating a nearly instantaneous control mechanism that can improve system performance over the expected range of operating conditions. These improvements include increasing energy capture, reducing instabilities, and improving structural performance. Practical constraints, however, lead to limitations in the scope of these performance enhancements and create tradeoffs between various benefits that can be achieved. This paper presents a numerical investigation into the capability of passive pitch control and combined active/passive pitch control to modify the performance of horizontal axis marine turbines with proper consideration of practical restrictions.

Influence of Blade Solidity on Marine Hydrokinetic Turbines

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Jonson ◽  
John Fahnline ◽  
Erick Johnson ◽  
Matthew Barone ◽  
Arnold Fontaine
Keyword(s):  
Marine Ecosystem ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Electrical Power ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
Blade Vibration ◽  
Radiated Noise ◽  
Hydrokinetic Turbines ◽  
Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines ◽  
Marine Hydrokinetic

Marine hydrokinetic (MHK) devices are currently being considered for the generation of electrical power in marine tidal regions. Turbulence generated in the boundary layers of these channels interacts with a turbine to excite the blades into low-to mid-frequency vibration. Additionally, the self-generated turbulent boundary layer on the turbine blade excites its trailing edge into vibration. Both of these hydrodynamic sources generate radiated noise. Being installed in a marine ecosystem, the noise generated by these MHK devices may affect the fish and marine mammal well-being. Since this MHK technology is relatively new, much of the design practice follows that from conventional horizontal axis wind turbines. In contrast to other underwater turbomachines like conventional merchant ships that have solid blades, wind turbine blades are made of hollow fiberglass composites. This paper systematically investigates the contrast of this design detail on the blade vibration and radiated noise for a particular MHK turbine design.

Passive control of marine hydrokinetic turbine blades

2014 ◽  
Vol 110 ◽  
pp. 133-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael R. Motley ◽  
Ramona B. Barber
Keyword(s):  
Passive Control ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Hydrokinetic Turbine ◽  
Marine Hydrokinetic

AN APPROACH FOR THE OPTIMUM HYDRODYNAMIC DESIGN OF HYDROKINETIC TURBINE BLADES

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. D. Shinomiya ◽  
J. R. P. Vaz ◽  
A. L. A. Mesquita ◽  
T. F. De Oliveira ◽  
A. C. P. Brasil Jr ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Twist Angle ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Thrust Coefficient ◽  
Blade Element Theory ◽  
Hydrokinetic Turbines ◽  
Cavitation Effect ◽  
Hydrokinetic Turbine ◽  
Blade Section ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Rotor Shape

This work aims to develop a simple and efficient mathematical model applied to optimization of horizontal-axis hydrokinetic turbine blades considering the cavitation effect. The approach uses the pressure minimum coefficient as a criterion for the cavitation limit on the flow around the hydrokinetic blades. The methodology corrects the chord and twist angle at each blade section by a modification on the local thrust coefficient in order to takes into account the cavitation on the rotor shape. The optimization is based on the Blade Element Theory (BET), which is a well known method applied to design and performance analysis of wind and hydrokinetic turbines, which usually present good agreement with experimental data. The results are compared with data obtained from hydrokinetic turbines designed by the classical Glauert's optimization. The present method yields good behavior, and can be used as an alternative tool in efficient hydrokinetic turbine designs.

scholarly journals A Numerical Methodology for Simple Optimization of Marine Hydrokinetic Turbine Array

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soheil Radfar ◽  
Roozbeh Panahi
Keyword(s):  
Tidal Power ◽  
Hydrokinetic Turbines ◽  
Hydrokinetic Turbine ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Tidal Stream ◽  
Tidal Stream Energy ◽  
Marine Hydrokinetic ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Promising Type

Tidal stream energy, due to its high level of consistency and predictability, is one of the feasible and promising type of renewable energy for future development and investment. Applicability of Blade Element Momentum (BEM) method for modeling the interaction of turbines in tidal arrays has been proven in many studies. Apart from its well-known capabilities, yet there is scarcity of research using BEM for the modeling of tidal stream energy farms considering full scale rotors. In this paper, a real geographical site for developing a tidal farm in the southern coasts of Iran is selected. Then, a numerical methodology is validated and calibrated for the selected farm by analyzing array of turbines. A linear equation is proposed to calculate tidal power of marine hydrokinetic turbines. This methodology narrows down the wide range of turbine array configurations, reduces the cost of optimization and focuses on estimating best turbine arrangements in a limited number of positions.

scholarly journals New directions for reinforced concrete coastal structures

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Nolan ◽  
Marco Rossini ◽  
Chase Knight ◽  
Antonio Nanni
Keyword(s):  
Service Life ◽  
Prestressed Concrete ◽  
Composite Structures ◽  
Construction Materials ◽  
Design Guidelines ◽  
Coastal Structures ◽  
Frp Composites ◽  
The Us ◽  
Time Dependent Effect ◽  
Traditional Construction

AbstractWithin the last century, coastal structures for infrastructure applications have traditionally been constructed with timber, structural steel, and/or steel-reinforced/prestressed concrete. Given asset owners’ desires for increased service-life; reduced maintenance, repair and rehabilitation; liability; resilience; and sustainability, it has become clear that traditional construction materials cannot reliably meet these challenges without periodic and costly intervention. Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composites have been successfully utilized for durable bridge applications for several decades, demonstrating their ability to provide reduced maintenance costs, extend service life, and significantly increase design durability. This paper explores a representative sample of these applications, related specifically to internal reinforcement for concrete structures in both passive (RC) and pre-tensioned (PC) applications, and contrasts them with the time-dependent effect and cost of corrosion in transportation infrastructure. Recent development of authoritative design guidelines within the US and international engineering communities is summarized and a examples of RC/PC verses FRP-RC/PC presented to show the sustainable (economic and environmental) advantage of composite structures in the coastal environment.

Modeling the wake dynamics of a marine hydrokinetic turbine using different actuator representations

2021 ◽  
Vol 222 ◽  
pp. 108584
Author(s):  
Jorge Sandoval ◽  
Karina Soto-Rivas ◽  
Clemente Gotelli ◽  
Cristián Escauriaza
Keyword(s):  
Hydrokinetic Turbine ◽  
Marine Hydrokinetic

Geometrically exact, intrinsic mixed variational formulation for smart, slender multilink composite structures

2021 ◽  
pp. 1045389X2110322
Author(s):  
P M G Bashir Asdaque ◽  
Sitikantha Roy
Keyword(s):  
Composite Structures ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Space Structures ◽  
Wind Turbine Blades ◽  
Weak Formulation ◽  
Helicopter Blades ◽  
Static Mechanical ◽  
Computational Platform ◽  
Swept Wings ◽  
Variational Statement

Flexible links are often part of massive aerospace structures like helicopter or wind turbine blades, satellite bae, airplane wings, and space stations. In the present work, a mixed variational statement based on intrinsic variables is derived for multilinked smart slender structures. Equations involved in the derivation do not involve approximations of kinematical variables to describe the deformation of the reference line or the rotation of the deformed cross-section of the slender links resulting in a geometrically exact formulation. Finite element equations are derived from weak formulation, which can analyze large geometrically non-linear problems. The weakest possible variational statement provides greater flexibility in the choice of shape functions, therefore reducing the associated numerical complexities. The present work focuses on developing a single integrated computational platform which can study multibody, multilink, lightweight composite, structural system built with both embedded actuations, sensing, as well as passive links. Validation of static mechanical and electrical outputs from 3D FE simulation and literature proves the efficacy of the computational platform. Dynamic results will be communicated in future correspondence. The computational platform developed here can be applied for monitoring and active control applications of flexible smart multilink structures like swept wings, multi-bae space structures, and helicopter blades.

3D Permeability of Thick-Section Glass Fabric Reinforced Polymer Composite by Vacuum-Assisted Resin Infusion Molding

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Ethan R Pedneau ◽  
Su Su Wang
Keyword(s):  
Wind Turbine ◽  
Composite Structures ◽  
Complex Geometry ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Glass Fabric ◽  
Thick Section ◽  
Flow Front ◽  
Resin Infusion ◽  
Principal Axes

Abstract Determination of permeability of thick-section glass fabric preforms with fabric layers of different architectures is critical for manufacturing large, thick composite structures with complex geometry, such as wind turbine blades. The thick-section reinforcement permeability is inherently three-dimensional and needs to be obtained for accurate composite processing modeling and analysis. Numerical simulation of the liquid stage of vacuum-assisted resin infusion molding (VARIM) is important to advance the composite manufacturing process and reduce processing-induced defects. In this research, the 3D permeability of thick-section E-glass fabric reinforcement preforms is determined and the results are validated by a comparison between flow front progressions from experiments and from numerical simulations using ANSYS Fluent software. The orientation of the principal permeability axes were unknown prior to experiments. The approach used in this research differs from those in literature in that the through-thickness permeability is determined as a function of flow front positions along the principal axes and the in-plane permeabilities and is not dependent on the inlet radius. The approach was tested on reinforcements with fabric architectures which vary through-the-thickness direction, such as those in a spar cap of a wind turbine blade. The computational simulations of the flow-front progression through-the-thickness were consistent with experimental observations.

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