Flow Simulation to Study SMART KITE Design
Abstract
The Potsdam Propeller Test Case PPTC propeller was used as the turbine for the flow simulation of the tethered undersea kite TUSK energy system in this project. OpenFOAM ‘propeller’ and ‘wingmotion’ tutorials used as starting points to study the flow conditions surrounding the propeller, airfoil, and kite. SIMPLE and PIMPLE algorithms were used to solve the governing equations in the 𝑘−𝜔 SST turbulence model. Simulation was validated against PPTC experimental data in the propeller case and against XFOIL code in the airfoil simulation. Thrust and torque were extracted from the simulation to produce the performance and power curves for the hydrokinetic kite.