Design Analysis of a Horizontal Axis Tidal

Turbine
Rhona Liza Cruz​1​, Saleh Jomar Salugandang​2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of the Philippines
Quezon City, Philippines
1​
rhonalizacruz@gmail.com
2​
salehjomar14@gmail.com

Abstract​—This paper will discuss the design analysis

of a horizontal axis tidal turbine with NACA 64-2xx Foil Profile Radial Chord Twist
series using QBlade. A node density study was Positio Length Angle
conducted. The Reynolds numbers for each foil n (m) (m) (deg)
profile were calculated for the generation of
performance polars which were then extrapolated to NACA 64-224 2 1.25 20
360° for blade design. Four rotor configurations were
made, two-bladed to five-bladed rotors, and the NACA 64-220 3 1.156 14.5
effects of the number of blades were observed. The
simulation shows that increasing the number of rotor
blades increases the power coefficient and the best
NACA 64-218 4 1.063 11.1
rotor configuration is the five-bladed rotor.
NACA 64-217 5 0.969 8.9
Keywords—​QBlade, horizontal axis, tidal turbine
NACA 64-216 6 0.875 7.4
I. INTRODUCTION
Renewable energy (RE) is a constantly NACA 64-215 7 0.781 6.5
growing industry in Philippines, driven by growing
adoption and utilization of RE in the world to NACA 64-214 8 0.688 5.9
reduce carbon emissions and to fight climate
change​[1]​. More than 10 percent of Philippine’s NACA 64-213 9 0.594 5.4
electricity requirements are supplied by
hydropower generation​[2]​. Under National NACA 64-212 10 .5 5
Renewable Energy Program, it is targeted to double
hydro capacity or for the additional hydro capacity A. Hydrofoil Design
to reach 5400 MW by 2023​[3]​. With that The 6000 series of NACA cannot be generated
information, data about better designs of by QBlade therefore NACA 64-2xx series were
hydroelectric turbines are highly recommended. generated using Generating Naca Light (GNacaLt)
This paper will discuss the analysis of the and were imported to QBlade. To see the effect of
effectiveness of specified hydraulic turbine design the node density to the blade simulation, four
with the aid of QBlade, an open source framework different node density were used. Shown in Figures
for the simulation and design of turbine. 1 to 4 were the hydrofoil design generated with
surface node of 50, 100, 150 and 200.
II. METHODOLOGY
Using the concept of similitude, the original
turbine design, a three-bladed rotor with outer
diameter of 0.8 m and hub diameter of 0.16 m,
were modified to a three-bladed rotor with outer
diameter of 20 m [4] ​ and hub diameter of 4 m.
Along with outer diameter and hub diameter, the Figure. 1. NACA 64-2xx Hydrofoils with 50 nodes
radial position and chord length were scaled up by
a factor of 25. The twist angle and the thickness
remained unmodified as stated in the design
problem.

TABLE I
Modified Blade Planform
Figure. 2 NACA 64-2xx Hydrofoils with 100 nodes
 NACA 64-213 11.7 11.8697 6717662

NACA 64-212 13 13.1529 6265918

Figure. 3 NACA 64-2xx Airfoils with 150 nodes The lift coefficient (C​l​) curves, drag coefficient
(C​d​) curves, pitch moment (C​m​) curves and lift over
drag coefficient (C​l​/C​d​) curves for the NACA
64-2xx hydrofoils was generated using XFOIL
Direct Analysis for a range of -20° to 20° angle of
attack at Reynolds number of the specific foil
shown in Table II. The lift coefficient (C​l​) vs. drag
coefficient (C​d​) curves are also generated.
Figure. 4 NACA 64-2xx Airfoils with 200 nodes
Change in lift coefficient (C​l​), drag coefficient (C​d​),
pitch moment (C​m​) with the angle of attack in
B. Hydrofoil Performance Polar
different node densities are shown in figures 5-8.
Since all foil polars must be tested at the
appropriate Reynolds number of an actual rotor
scale at the design optimum tip speed, Reynolds
number of each foil design must be calculated first
before generating foil performance polars.
The formula for the Reynolds number of each
ρW c
airfoil is Re = μ where ρ is the density, W is the
relative velocity, c is the chord length and μ is the
dynamic viscosity of the fluid. The given seawater
density is 1029 kg/m​3 ​and given seawater viscosity
is 0.00108 Ns/m​2​. The relative velocity (W) is the
magnitude of the vector sum of frame velocity (U), Figure. 5. Performance Polar of NACA 64-2xx
and absolute velocity of fluid (V). The speed of the Hydrofoils with 50 nodes
water is 2 m/s and the frame velocity (U) is the
cross product of radial position of the foil (r) and
the rotor angular velocity (ω). The rotor angular
velocity can be calculated from the given optimum
tip speed ratio (λ) which is the speed of the tips of
the turbine blade (rω​outer​) over the speed of the
water (V). The given optimum tip speed ratio is
equivalent to 6.5 and the calculated rotor angular
velocity (ω) is 1.3 rad/s.

TABLE II Figure. 6. Performance Polar of NACA 64-2xx

Calculated values of Frame Velocity (U), Relative Hydrofoils with 100 nodes
Velocity (W) and the Reynolds Number (Re)
Foil Profile U(m/s) W(m/s) Re

NACA 64-224 2.6 3.2802 3906679

NACA 64-220 3.9 4.3829 4827398

NACA 64-218 5.2 5.5713 5642684

NACA 64-217 6.5 6.8007 6278722

NACA 64-216 7.8 8.0523 6713070 Figure. 7. Performance Polar of NACA 64-2xx
Hydrofoils with 150 nodes
NACA 64-215 9.1 9.3172 6933101

NACA 64-214 10.4 10.5906 6942231

 Figure. 8. Performance Polar of NACA 64-2xx
Hydrofoils with 200 nodes
C. 360° Extrapolation of Performance Polars
Using Montgomerie extrapolation technique,
full 360​° polar was calculated from hydrofoil
performance polar. The points in the graph can be
adjusted to make the graph smoother to lessen the
discontinuities.
Figure. 9. 360° Montgomery Extrapolation of
NACA 64-2xx Hydrofoils with 50 nodes
Figure. 10. 360° Montgomery Extrapolation of
NACA 64-2xx Hydrofoils with 100 nodes
Figure. 11. 360° Montgomery Extrapolation of
NACA 64-2xx Hydrofoils with 150 nodes
Figure. 12. 360° Montgomery Extrapolation of
NACA 64-2xx Hydrofoils with 200 nodes
D. HAWT Rotor Blade Configuration
Under HAWT Rotor Blade Design Module,
rotor configuration were made using the modified
blade specifications, hydrofoil performance polars
and 360° extrapolation. Different rotor
configurations were made by altering the number
blades from two to five blades.
Figure. 13. NACA 64-2xx Series Rotor with Two
Blades
Figure. 14. NACA 64-2xx Series Rotor with Three
Blades

Figure. 15. NACA 64-2xx Series Rotor with Four
Blades
Figure. 16. NACA 64-2xx Series Rotor with Five
Blades
E. BEM Simulations
Given that the design project would operate
with seawater having a velocity of 2m/s , setting up
the simulation for the different number of blades
would require the fluid density (ρ) set to 1029
kg/m​3 and the fluid viscosity set to 0.00108 Ns/m​2​.
Since the original design is a three bladed rotor, it
was simulated first. The coefficient of power (C​p​)
was calculated for each Tip Speed Ratio (TSR) in
range (1,10) with increments of 0.5. Figure 17-20
shows the C​p vs TSR curves for a three bladed rotor
with different node density.
Figure 17. Curve of NACA 64-2xx Series Rotor
with Three Blades and 50 nodes
Figure 18. Curve of NACA 64-2xx Series Rotor
with Three Blades and 100 nodes
Figure 19. Curve of NACA 64-2xx Series Rotor
with Three Blades and 150 nodes
Figure 20. Curve of NACA 64-2xx Series Rotor
with Three Blades and 200 nodes
After simulating the three-bladed rotor, other
configurations were also simulated—from
two-bladed to five-bladed. This was done to
observe the effect of changing the number blades
and to see which would yield the highest
coefficient of power. The curves for the different
number of rotor blades were superpositioned in one
simulation. Figure 21-24 shows the combined
performance curves of the different turbine
configuration.

Figure 21. Coefficient of Power vs. Tip Speed

Ratio of NACA 66-6xx series with 50 nodes

Figure 24. Coefficient of Power vs. Tip Speed

Ratio of NACA 66-6xx series with 200 nodes

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

After modifying the specifications of the
original design by using a 20 meter diameter rotor,
the least value calculated Reynolds number is 3.9 x
Figure 22. Coefficient of Power vs. Tip Speed
10​6 which is relatively greater than 5 x 10​5 , and
Ratio of NACA 66-6xx series with 100 nodes
with the assumption of the blade being treated as a
flat plate due to high blade length to thickness ratio,
it would mean that the fluid flow would be
turbulent.
A turbulent flow means that there is an
unsteadiness in the flow that enhance the power
coefficient of the turbine as a result of increasing
the ratio of lift over drag coefficients​[5]​. This effect
can be seen with NACA 64-213 with a relatively
high Reynolds number, having the highest lift
among all the airfoil designs, and consistent across
all node densities. The stall angles and lift
coefficient of the airfoil designs would be seen in
Table 3-6.

TABLE III
Corresponding Stall Angles and Lift Coefficient of
NACA 64-2xx series with 50 nodes
Foil Profile Stall Angle (o) Cl

NACA 64-224 20 1.346

Figure 23. Coefficient of Power vs. Tip Speed NACA 64-220 19 1.460
Ratio of NACA 64-2xx series with 150 nodes
NACA 64-218 18.60 1.568

NACA 64-217 19.60 1.658

NACA 64-216 20 1.716

 Corresponding Stall Angles and Lift Coefficient of
NACA 64-215 20 1.733
NACA 64-2xx series with 200 nodes
NACA 64-214 19.40 1.743 Foil Profile Stall Angle (o) Cl

NACA 64-213 18.30 1.721 NACA 64-224 20 1.545

NACA 64-212 18 1.699 NACA 64-220 20 1.664

NACA 64-218 20 1.736

TABLE IV
Corresponding Stall Angles and Lift Coefficient of
NACA 64-217 20 1.767
NACA 64-2xx series with 100 nodes
Foil Profile Stall Angle (o) Cl NACA 64-216 20 1.780

NACA 64-224 20 1.487 NACA 64-215 18.5 1.774

NACA 64-220 18.5 1.530 NACA 64-214 20 1.815

NACA 64-218 15 1.499 NACA 64-213 20 1.851

NACA 64-217 20 1.506 NACA 64-212 19.5 1.843

NACA 64-216 20 1.651

Observing the effects of node densities to the
design would result with the 200 nodes design
NACA 64-215 20 1.743
having the smoothest curves compared to the other
three. Also basing on the C​p vs TSR graph, it can
NACA 64-214 20 1.816
be seen that as you increase the number of nodes,
NACA 64-213 20 1.844 the deviation also decreases. This can also be
observed in all the stall angle and lift coefficients.
NACA 64-212 19.4 1.828 The result regarding the relationship of power
coefficient and the rotor configuration from our
given data suggests that as the rotor blade number
TABLE V increases, the maximum coefficient of power also .
Corresponding Stall Angles and Lift Coefficient of However, upon further speculation, it can be
NACA 64-2xx series with 150 nodes observed that as the number of rotor blade
Foil Profile Stall Angle (o) Cl increases, the gains in the max coefficient of power
Cp get smaller and smaller, suggesting a limit to
NACA 64-224 20 1.525 the max number of blades in achieving maximum
coefficient of power.
NACA 64-220 20 1.639
IV. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
NACA 64-218 19.5 1.676 A design analysis was conducted to a
horizontal axis tidal turbine with NACA 64-2xx
NACA 64-217 18.5 1.671 series. On the conducted node density study, it can
be concluded that increasing the node density
NACA 64-216 20 1.684 increases the precision of the data about the turbine
design thus increasing the accuracy of the values
NACA 64-215 20 1.755 generated from the turbine design data.
It was also found out that the maximum lift
NACA 64-214 20 1.823 coefficient is 1.856 at angle of attack of 20° at
NACA 64-213.
NACA 64-213 20 1.856 On the effects of rotor configuration to the
power of coefficient, it can be concluded that
NACA 64-212 19.5 1.843 increasing the number of rotor blades increases the
maximum coefficient of power and in NACA
TABLE VI 64-2xx series and TSR of 6.5 it can be concluded
that the best rotor configuration would be the
five-bladed rotor.
It is recommended to explore more node
density and more rotor configuration and see what
are the limits. Also, the data from NACA 64-2xx
can be compare to other 6000 series and see the
similarities and differences in the data.
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2iQ_i87fTlg8HiswlsqkThE
[5] Mahyar Mahmoodilari (2012 ). THE EFFECT
OF TURBULENT FLOW ON WIND TURBINE
LOADING AND PERFORMANCE. Retrieved
fromwww.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/files/54
515068/FULL_TE XT.PDF

V. REFERENCES
[1] Jay Soriano (2018). ​Renewable energy for all
Filipinos. Retrieved from www.philstar.com
[2] Department of Energy.
HYDROPOWER. Retrieved from
www.doe.gov.ph/hydropower
[3] Angelica Delos Santos. Renewable energy in
the Philippines. Retrieved from
www.irena.org/eventdocs/Philippines%20presentati
on.pdf
[4] G.S. Bir, M.J. Lawson, and Y. Li (2011).
Structural Design of a Horizontal-Axis Tidal
Current Turbine Composite Blade. Retrieved from
www.nrel.gov/docs/fy12osti/50658.pdf?fbclid=Iw