Ikhwan 2022 IOP Conf. Ser. Earth Environ. Sci. 1081 012045

IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science
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The 3rd Maritime Safety International Conference (MASTIC) 2022 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 1081 (2022) 012045 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/1081/1/012045
Structural Strength Study for Vertical Axis Hydrokinetic

Turbine Frame
N Ikhwan1 , T Y Yuwono1 , A Wikarta1 , A P Harendsa1 , D A Pratama1 , D A

Sekarrini1 , D A Fatjrin1 , G A Nurbawono1
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sepuluh Nopember Institute
of Technology, Surabaya, Indonesia
Abstract. One of the renewable energy sources is ocean currents which can be extracted with
the Darrieus vertical axis hydrokinetic turbine (VAHT). This research aims to analyze the
deformation and structural stresses that occur in the Darrieus VAHT support frame due to the
loads. In the VAHT installation, it is necessary to have a support structure in the form of a
solid frame, so that the turbine remains in a stable condition when operating. The VAHT frame
must be able to withstand the load from a rotating turbine and have a small drag force. This
study conducted a numerical simulation using the finite element analysis method. The effect of
the cross-sectional shape of the structural beams on the drag due to flow was also investigated.
The result is the frame designed with the ASTM A36 Grade B pipe structure has maximum
stress of 63,116 MPa and it is relatively smaller and remains within the safe limits of the
material. In addition, based on CFD simulation, the drag caused by the flow across the
structure with this design is also smaller. Therefore, this study can be used as a consideration in
making decisions to design the Darrieus VAHT frame.
1. Introduction
Digitalization nowadays increases the need for electricity many times compared to the last few
decades. According to the International Energy Agency, worldwide electricity consumption in 2019
reached 22,848 TWh, or almost double the electricity consumption in 2010. This massive consumption
rate is followed by higher production levels too. In 2019, non-OECD countries produced a total of
1,850 TWh, while OECD countries produced a total of 11,194 TWh. A total of 63% of the world's
electricity production is generated from non-renewable sources, such as coal, oil, and natural gas.
Meanwhile, the share of renewable energy is dominated by hydropower, which accounts for 16% of
total electricity production [1].
Table 1. Sources of electricity generation worldwide

Source
Coal 36,7 %
Renewables 26,7 %
Natural Gas 23,5 %
Nuclear 10,3 %
Oil 2,8 %
One of the renewable energy sources with great potential is hydropower. Given the large water
surface on earth, it is estimated that in 2014 there will be an electrical capacity of 500 to 2,750 MW
that can be extracted from the ocean [2]. The increase in production capacity cannot be separated from
the increasing number of research on hydropower technology, some of which are horizontal axis
turbines, vertical axis turbines, and oscillating hydropower. Among these various technologies, 76% of
research and development on marine technology is focused on Horizontal Axis Marine Turbines
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution
of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd 1
(HAMTs). Meanwhile, based on Elsevier’s abstract database on Scopus, there is only about 7%
research on VAMTs compared to research on VAWTs, although VAMTs can be used to extract
energy from ocean currents on the same principle as VAWTs [3].
One of the important elements in VAMTs technology is the support and frame that supports the
turbine during operation. There are many types of VAMTs supports, such as floating supports and
supports embedded in the seabed. Meanwhile, the design of the frame used must be able to withstand
operational loads without disturbing the work of the rotor. The operational loads such as the drag force
due to the turbine, the weight of the system, and the drag force from the interaction of the flow with
the submerged frame. The cross-sectional shape of the turbine frame structure affects the resulting
drag. By comparison, a rectangular cross-section with sharp edges has a large drag coefficient while
making the front end of the square rounded, reducing drag by up to 45%. By streamlining the rear end
of the square into a sharp trailing edge, drag can be reduced by up to 85%. This shows that the cross-
sectional shape of the frame structure will greatly affect the resulting drag. Surface roughness also
affects the wake and the separation point from the flow to the body being passed. So, there are several
ways to reduce the drag force that arises in the submerged frame.
In this study, the strength of the frame structure of the Darrieus turbine is simulated using the finite
element analysis method. The frame is designed with ASTM A36 Steel material in the form of a
cylindrical pipe. The reason for using a cylindrical pipe for the frame geometry refers to the research
that has been done by Gautier [4]. It is expected that the stresses and total deformation information
will be generated, and it can be used as a reference to determine the safety of the frame design. In
addition, fluid flow simulations were carried out to determine the effect of the cross-sectional shape of
the frame structure on the drag force caused by the interaction between sea currents and the frame.
2. Methodology
2.1 Frame Design
The design of the Darrieus turbine frame is shown in Figure 1. The Darrieus turbine frame
used is a modified turbine from a previous study. The difference with the previous Darrieus turbine
frame is that the frame is composed of an ASTM A36 circular pipe. The simulated Darrieus
Turbine Frame is only 3.8 meters high from the bottom frame shown in figure 2. It is adapted to the
Darrieus Turbine System which is submerged in water. The dimensions of the Darrieus turbine
frame used are shown in Table 2, whereas the loads on turbine frame are shown in Table 3.
(A) (B)
Figure 1. (A) 3D Design of System Darrieus Turbine (B) Loads on Turbine Frame
2
Figure 2. Simulated 3D Design of Darrieus Turbine Frame
Table 2. The geometry of Darrieus Turbine Frame
Parameter Unit (mm)

Diameter of Circular Cylinder pipe 88.9
Height of Frame 4900
Height of submerged Frame 3800
Length of Frame 2463.9
Wide of Frame 610
Table 3. The Loads on Darrieus Turbine Frame
Load Value
Frame Weight (C) 10 kN
Gearbox (D) 5 kN
Turbine Drag (G) 11 kN
Generator (H) 300 N
2.2 CFD Model

The computational fluid dynamic (CFD) method was carried out to extract the data from the
vertical axis hydrokinetic turbine frame. Using ANSYS Fluent to simulate the turbine frame gives
some advantages such as being cheaper and safer than the realistic model. The numerical study was
done in the three-dimensional steady-state condition which includes three main steps pre-processing,
solving, and post-processing.
The pre-processing step consists of making the geometry, creating the flow domain, mesh
generation, and setting up a solver. Based on Bruno [5], the flow domain is 25620 mm long, 23227.8
mm width, and 25900 mm height. The geometry was made in SpaceClaim. The next step is meshing
the flow domain which is shown in figure 2. The mesh uses the unstructured tetrahedral element with a
prism layer is applied to the turbine frame wall to maintain the accuracy of the result.
The boundary condition is shown in figure 2. The velocity inlet boundary condition was set in
the inlet where the flow enter the domain. The pressure outlet boundary condition was set in
downstream of the flow with the pressure equal to atmospheric pressure. The other side of the domain
was set as a symmetry boundary condition so that the normal velocity is equal to zero.
3
The boundary condition is shown in figure 2. The velocity inlet boundary condition was set
in the inlet where the flow enter the domain. The pressure outlet boundary condition was set in the
downstream of the flow with the pressure equal to atmospheric pressure. The others side of the domain
was set as symmetry boundary condition so that the normal velocity is equal to zero. The SST k-ω
turbulence model is used because it gives accurate prediction of the amount flow separation under
adverse pressure gradient [6].
Figure 3. Flow Domain and Boundary Condition
(a)
4
(b)
Figure 4. Computational grid (a) all domain.; (b) cylinder
The solving or processing step is the step where the governing equations are solved using
iterative method until the convergence criteria is achieved.
The post-processing step involves extracting the desired flow properties from the computed
flow field. The extracted data are drag force, moment, pressure and velocity contours, and turbulent
viscosity contour.
Figure 5. Frame Geometry for Simulation
5
3. Result and Discussion
3.1 flow Analysis Results of the Turbine Frame

Analysis of fluid flow in the turbine frame using a flow with a speed of 2 m/s in the direction
of the z axis. The simulation is carried out by dividing the turbine frame into four intersecting areas,
namely the middle (middle yz plane), right (right yz plane), top (top xz plane), and bottom (bottom xz
plane) intersection areas. Figure 6 shows the simulation results in the form of pressure contours and
velocity contours shown by Figure 7 for each intersection area. The large pressure at the stagnation
point causes a fairly large drag force with a value of 2.77 kN and a drag coefficient (𝐶𝑑 ) of 4.523.28.
wake that arises behind the turbine frame will cause a large drag force, so that the total moment of the
resulting force will also be large with a value of 5,09 kN.m. Wake is a fluid flow phenomenon where
the flowing fluid will form a vortex due to the difference in pressure. The emergence of wake on the
turbine frame can be seen from the value of the turbulent viscous ratio which is quite large at each
intersection area, namely 5185.51.
(a) top - xz (b) bottom - xz
(c) right - xz (d) middle - xz

Figure 6. Turbine frame simulation pressure contour with a fluid flow of 2 m/s
6
Figure 7. Turbine frame simulation velocity contour with a fluid flow of 2 m/s
The next fluid flow analysis is at a speed of 2.5 m/s in the direction of the z axis. The
simulation is carried out by dividing the turbine frame into four intersecting areas, namely the middle
(middle yz plane), right (right yz plane), top (top xz plane), and bottom (bottom xz plane) intersection
areas. Figure 8 shows the simulation results in the form of pressure contours and velocity contours
shown by Figure 9 for each intersection area. The large pressure at the stagnation point causes a fairly
large drag force with a value of 4.26 kN and a drag coefficient (𝐶𝑑 ) of 6,988.83. wake that arises
behind the turbine frame will cause a large drag force, so that the total moment of the resulting force
will also be large with a value of 7.87 kNm. Wake is a fluid flow phenomenon where the flowing fluid
will form a vortex due to the difference in pressure. The emergence of wake on the turbine frame can
be seen from the value of the turbulent viscous ratio, which is quite large at each intersection area,
namely 6351.33.
7

Figure 8. Turbine frame simulation pressure contour with a fluid flow of 2.5 m/s
(b) top - xz (a) bottom - xz

Figure 9. Turbine frame simulation velocity contour with a fluid flow of 2.5 m/s
Another flow velocity variation value used in this study is 3 m/s with the intersection area as
in the previous flow velocity simulation. In this variation, a pressure contour as shown in Figure 10
and the velocity contour will also be generated as shown in Figure 11 due to the large pressure at the
stagnation point of the frame, a drag force of 6.09 kN arises with a drag coefficient of 9.945.19. In
addition, a large drag force can also be generated due to the emergence of a wake that occurs at the
back of the frame. The greater the drag force, the greater the resulting moment. With this speed
variation, the moment in the frame has a value of 11.19 kN.m. The occurrence of a wake on the
turbine frame can be shown by the value of the turbulent viscous ratio, where in this simulation the
turbulent viscous ratio value is 7418.52.
8

Figure 10. Turbine frame simulation pressure contour with a fluid flow of 3 m/s

Figure 11. Turbine frame simulation velocity contour with a fluid flow of 3 m/s
9
3.2 Stress Analysis Results of the Turbine Frame

Stress analysis result of the turbine frame is used Boundary Conditions Fixed Support‘s that
is on the top sliding foot, displacement that is on the middle sliding, weight of the system is
approximately 10 kN, the weight of the gearbox is approximately 5 kN, the stress due to current drag
force water on the vertical and horizontal components, the remote force assume approximately 11 kN
due to the turbine drag force, and the last is the generator weight assume approximately 300 N. The
maximum stress results is generated from the simulation that occurs at points connection with a value
of 33,32 MPa. Because ASTM A36 has 400 MPa of tensile strength value and 250 MPa of yield
strength value, the turbine frame is acceptable.
Figure 12. Maximum stress in turbine frame simulation

4. Conclusion
Changes in the speed of sea water currents hitting the darrieus turbine frame cause changes in the
drag force generated. As the current velocity increases, the pressure at the stagnation points in the
frame increases and the wake and turbulence increase. In this study, the largest drag force occurs at a
speed variation of 3 m/s, which is 6.09 kN. The drag force produces a moment of 11.19 kN.m. High
turbulence at this speed variation is indicated by the turbulent viscous ratio of 7,418.52. While the
frame analysis shows that the greatest stress value in the frame occurs around the middle joint with a
value of 82.539 MPa. With these results, it can be concluded that the Darrieus turbine frame structure
can be used properly in conditions of flow velocity with variations of 2-3 m/s.
5. References
[1] IEA (2021), Electricity Information: Overview, IEA, Paris

https://www.iea.org/reports/electricity-information-overview
[2] Melikoglu, M. 2018. Current status and future of ocean energy sources: A global review. In
Ocean Engineering (Vol. 148, pp. 563–573). Elsevier Ltd.
[3] Nguyen, M. T., Balduzzi, F., & Goude, A. 2021. Effect of pitch angle on power and
hydrodynamics of a vertical axis turbine. Ocean Engineering, 238.
[4] Gautier, R., Biau D., Lamballais E. 2013. A reference solution of the ﬂow over a circular
cylinder at Re = 40. Computers & Fluids, pp. 103 – 111. Elsevier Ltd.
[5] Bruno, L., Fransos, D., Coste, N., Bosco, A. 2009. 3D ﬂow around a rectangular cylinder: A
computational study. Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, pp. 263–
276. Elsevier Ltd.
[6] Zhang, D. 2017. Comparison of Various Turbulence Models for Unsteady Flow around a Finite
Circular Cylinder at Re=20000. Journal of Physics: Conference Series.
10

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PAPER • OPEN ACCESS You may also like

- Performance evaluation of vertical axis

- Experimental Investigation of Three

This content was downloaded from IP address 202.80.216.29 on 02/05/2023 at 05:34

Structural Strength Study for Vertical Axis Hydrokinetic

N Ikhwan1 , T Y Yuwono1 , A Wikarta1 , A P Harendsa1 , D A Pratama1 , D A

Table 1. Sources of electricity generation worldwide

2.1 Frame Design

Figure 2. Simulated 3D Design of Darrieus Turbine Frame

Table 2. The geometry of Darrieus Turbine Frame

Parameter Unit (mm)

Table 3. The Loads on Darrieus Turbine Frame

2.2 CFD Model

Figure 3. Flow Domain and Boundary Condition

Figure 5. Frame Geometry for Simulation

3. Result and Discussion

3.1 flow Analysis Results of the Turbine Frame

(a) top - xz (b) bottom - xz

(c) right - xz (d) middle - xz

(a) top - xz (b) bottom - xz

(c) right - xz (d) middle - xz

(a) top - xz (b) bottom - xz

(c) right - xz (d) middle - xz

(b) top - xz (a) bottom - xz

(c) right - xz (d) middle - xz

(a) top - xz (b) bottom - xz

(c) right - xz (d) middle - xz

(a) top - xz (b) bottom - xz

(c) right - xz (d) middle - xz

3.2 Stress Analysis Results of the Turbine Frame

Figure 12. Maximum stress in turbine frame simulation

[1] IEA (2021), Electricity Information: Overview, IEA, Paris

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