ABSTRACT
The idea of extracting energy from oceans was evoked centuries ago yet; it was not until the oil crisis in the 1970s that the interest in clean renewable energy gained a lot of attention and, intense research started being conducted. Oceans are endowed with vast renewable energy resources such as; tidal, wave and, current. In this paper, a three-dimensional CFD simulation of the hydrodynamic performance of a unique marine current turbine is presented. The turbine is termed a “Fin-ring Turbine” and comprises 7 concentric rings with 88 connecting cambered fins and a solid centre hub. The 4 outermost rings have 16 connecting fins per ring while the 3 innermost rings have 8 connecting fins per ring. Simulations are carried out at two different marine current speeds and over a range of RPMs. In addition, a sensitivity study is conducted on maximizing the extracted power by testing various fin pitch angles. Predicted power results are very promising with obtained hydrodynamic efficiencies of up to 40%. Comparisons with power test data available in the literature show very satisfactory agreement.
