ReDAPT - MD1.5 CFD Simulation of Turbulence at a Tidal Stream Site based on Field Measurements

One of the key developments of the marine energy industry in the UK is the demonstration of near commercial scale devices in real sea conditions and the collection of performance and environmental data to inform permitting and licensing processes.The ETI’s ReDAPT (Reliable Data Acquisition Platform for Tidal) project saw an innovative 1MW buoyant tidal generator installed at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) in Orkney in January 2013.The project demonstrated the performance of the tidal generator in different operational conditions, aiming to increase public and industry confidence in tidal turbine technologies by providing a wide range of environmental impact and performance information, as well as demonstrating a new, reliable turbine designThis document provided details of a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method to model a full tidal-stream turbine simulation, with realistic ambient turbulent flow conditions. Modelling includes simulation of the 1MW TGL turbine at a fixed rotation rate, including effects of turbulence and meanflow velocity shear with realistic ebb and flood profiles from the EMEC test site. High-resolution channel flow calculations have characterised mean velocity, turbulence and length scales