Simulation of S-Shaped Airfoil for a Bidirectional Tidal Stream Turbine

Abstract

The energy supplies in the world mostly rely on fossil fuels which are responsible for increasing the greenhouse effect and global warming by releasing carbon emissions. As global warming is a serious issue for both environment and human health and wellbeing, there is an urgent need to use renewable energy to prevent the environmental problem caused by fossil fuels.

This thesis will discuss the application of tidal stream energy as alternative renewable energy to support sustainable development in society. Tidal energy is more predictable and has higher efficiency than other renewable energy resources like wind energy and wave energy.

This project will analyze and discuss the main component in the airfoil for the horizontal axis tidal turbine. The aerodynamic performance depends on the airfoil design and the sea water flow on the airfoil surface. The results consist of the lift coefficient, the drag coefficient, the aerodynamic efficiency, the performance curve and the off-design performance, the flow pattern, and the pressure.

The airfoil performance will be simulated by the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to reduce the time and cost experiment. The investigated airfoil designs are NACA – 0012 airfoils and S-Shaped airfoils. Then, the results will be compared to the previous works, to decide the highest performance of the design of the airfoils for the horizontal axis tidal turbine.