• Journal of the Korean Society for Marine Environment & Energy
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.151-158
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• 2016

Tidal farm is a multi-arrayed turbine system for utilizing tidal stream energy. For horizontal-axis turbine(HAT) system, it is recommended that each unit has to be deployed far apart in order to avoid hydrodynamic interference among turbines, as proposed by the European Marine Energy Centre(EMEC). But there is no rule for the arrangement of vertical-axis turbine(VAT) yet. Moreover it has been reported that a proper arrangement of adjacent turbines can enhance the overall efficiency even greater than an arrangement without mutual interference effect. This paper suggests the layout of VATs showing the better performances, which turned out to be quite different from HATs' arrangement. Numerical calculations were performed to investigate the performance variation in terms of the rotational direction as well as the distance between turbines. It has been shown that the best combination of rotational direction and distance between turbines can increase its performance higher about 9.2% than that of two independently operated turbines. It is likely that such improvement is due to the increased velocity between adjacent turbines. For diagonally arranged turbines, the maximum normalized mean power coefficient was obtained to be higher about 5.6% than that of two independent turbines. It is expected that the present results can be utilized for conceptual design of tidal farm to harness the tidal stream energy.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.3-8
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• 2009

Tidal current power system is one of ocean renewable energies that can minimize the environmental impact with many advantages compared to other energy sources. Not like others, the produced energy can be precisely predicted without weather conditions and also the operation rate is very high. To convert the current into power, the first device encountered to the incoming flow is the rotor that can transform into rotational energy. The performance of rotor can be determined by various design parameters including numbers of blade, sectional shape, diameter, and etc. The stream lines near the rotating rotor is very complex and the interference effects around the system is also difficult to predict. The paper introduces the experiment of rotor performance and also the fundamental study on the characteristics of three different rotors and flow near the rotor by CFD.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.145-152
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• 2012

As the problems of global warming are brought up recently, many skillful solutions for developing new renewable energy are suggested. One of the most remarkable things is ocean energy. Korea has abundant ocean energy resources owing to geographical characteristics surrounded by sea on three sides, thus the technology of commercialization about tidal current power, wave power is demanded. Especially, Tidal energy conversion system is a means of maintaining environment naturally. Tidal current generation is a form to produce electricity by installing rotors, generators to convert a horizontal flow generated by tidal current into rotating movement. According to rotor direction, a tidal current turbine is largely distinguished between horizontal and vertical axis shape. Power capacity depends on the section size crossing a rotor and tidal current speed. We therefore investigated three dimensional flow analysis and performance evaluation using commercial ANSYS-CFX code for an 100 kW class horizontal axis turbine for low water level. Then We also studied three dimensional flow characteristics of a rotating rotor and blade surface streamlines around a rotor. As a result, We found that torque increased with TSR, the maximum torque occurred at TSR 3.77 and torque decreased even though TSR increased. Moreover we could get power coefficient 0.38 at designed flow velocity.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.87-110
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• 2020

Catamaran has recently been a choice to support a typical vertical axis turbine in floating tidal current energy conversion system. However, motion responses associated with the catamaran can reduce the turbines efficiency. The possibility to overcome this problem isto change the catamaran parameter by varying and simulating the demi-hull separations to have lower motion responses. This simulation was undertaken by Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) using potential flow analysis. Cases of demi-hull separation were considered, with ratios of demi-hull separation (S) to the breadth of demi-hull (B), ^S/_B of 3.45, 4.95, 6.45, 7.2 and 7.95. In order to compare to the previous works in the literature, the regular wave was set with wave height of 0.8 m. Furthermore, the analysis was carried out by irregular waves with significant wave height, H_s, of about 0.09 to 1.5 m and the wave period, T, of about 1.5 to 6 s or corresponding to the wave frequency, ω, of about 1.1 to 4.2 rad/s. The wave spectrum was derived from the equation of the International Towing Tank Conference (ITTC). For the case of turbines-loaded catamaran under consideration, the new finding is that the least significant amplitude response can be satisfied at the ratio ^S/_B of 7.2. This study indicates that selecting a right choice of demi-hull separation ratio could contribute in reducing motion responses of the tidal current turbines-loaded catamaran.

• Proceedings of the Korea Committee for Ocean Resources and Engineering Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.80-90
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• 2006

The influence of waves on the dynamic properties of bending moments at the root of blades of tidal stream vertical axis rotors is reported. Blade theory for wind turbine is combined with linear wave theory and used to analyse this influence. Experiments were carried out to validate the simulation and the comparison shows the usefulness of the theory in predicting the bending moments. The mathematical model is then used to study the importance of waves for the fatigue design of the blade-hub connection.

• Ocean Systems Engineering
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.119-166
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• 2018

The assessment of the potential for the design of marine renewable energy systems is reviewed and the current situation for marine renewable energy is promising. The most studied forms of marine renewable energy are ocean wind energy, ocean wave energy and tidal energy. Wind turbine generators include mostly horizontal axis type and vertical axis type. But also more exotic ideas such as a kite design. Wave energy devices consist of designs converting wave oscillations in electric power via a power take off equipment. Such equipment can take multiple forms to be more efficient. Nevertheless, the technology alone cannot be the only step towards marine renewable energy. Many other steps must be overcome: policy, environment, manpower as well as consumption habits. After reviewing the current conditions of marine renewable energy development, the authors analyzed the key factors for developing a strong marine renewable energy industry and pointed out the huge potential of marine renewable energy.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.39 no.8
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• pp.653-660
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• 2015

In this study, we conduct power performance and load analyses of two different types of vertical-axis tidal-current turbines using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method. To analyze the power output and loads, we perform transient CFD simulations considering the cavitation model using ANSYS CFX. The averaged power output of an H-type rotor was 7.47 kW and 67.6 kW in normal and extreme operating conditions, respectively, which did not satisfy the initial design conditions. However, in the case of the helical-type rotor, the power output under normal and extreme conditions were close to the expected values. The cavitation, which may cause instantaneous power fluctuation, occurred repeatedly at the suction side of the rotors. In order to guarantee a more stable power supply and to prevent fatigue failure, we require a design that minimizes cavitation.