Current Research | Renewable Energy

Numerical Simulations of Fluid-Structure Interaction Problems Based on Overset Grid Technique

The project is to develop an overset-based partitioned Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) solver with applications to aero-elastic problems, such as flapping wing dynamics, wing flutter predictions and renewable energy devices.

Analysis of FOWT Performance under Extreme Load Conditions and Control Strategy

As a renewable and clean energy source, the usage of wind energy has shown an upward trend in recent years. The Floating Offshore Wind Turbines (FOWT) has won high importance due to the increased demand on the renewable energy. However, we are still facing challenges in the motion predictions of FOWT under extreme conditions, high wind speed or/and high wave amplitudes etc. Therefore, a fully coupled numerical tool that is able to accurately predict and analyse the motions and responses of the complicated FOWT system is increasingly needed.

Fluid-Structure Interaction Analysis of a Multi-Bladed Open-Centred Tidal Turbine

In consequence to the development of global warming, clean-energy generation, together with more sustainable engineering practices, are required to diminish the damage ensued to our environment. To decrease grid dependency on fossil fuels, recent practices in the offshore renewable energy industry have exploited hydropower sources in an effort to generate energy from the motion of tidal currents by means of subsea turbines.

Fluid Structure Interaction Analysis of Renewable Turbine

Fossil fuels are not renewable, and also cause environmental problems such as global warming, air pollution and so on. Thus, renewable and eco-friendly energy is of great importance for our human. Tidal current energy is one of the sustainable energies. It is predictable and renewable. However, we meet many problems when we exploit this kind of energy, such as conversion efficiency, structural fatigue and other Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI) problems.

Investigation on Darrieus Type Straight Blade Vertical Axis Wind Turbine with Flexible Blade

In this study, a three-dimensional VAWT with a spanwise passively deformable flexible blade has been modelled. The study mainly focuses on the analysis of blade structure characteristics associated with the bending and twist deflection. Two types of flexible blade material and two strut locations supporting H-type blades are being investigated. The unsteady external loads and energy efficiency of VAWT with such designed flexible blade are also being analysed.

A Study on Oscillating Foil Energy Harvester with a Passive Flexible Foil

The present research is an extension of our previous work, which indicated that a flexible foil has a positive contribution to the energy extraction enhancement with an oscillating foil energy device. Other than an active controlled foil bending in Liu et al 2013, by prescribing the deformation of foil, the current research investigates the passive motion of flexible foil and its effect on energy extraction efficiency.

A Bio-Inspired Study on Tidal Energy Extraction with Flexible Flapping Wings

In order to study the role of the flexible wing deformation in the hydrodynamics of flapping wing energy devices, we computationally model the two-dimensional flexible single and twin flapping wings in operation under the energy extraction conditions with a large Reynolds number of 106. The flexible motion for the present study is pre-determined based on a priori structural result which is different from a passive flexibility solution. Four different models are investigated with additional potential local distortions near the leading and trailing edges.

Flow Control for VATT by Fixed and Oscillating Flap

This research is aimed to explore the potential to improve Vertical Axis Tidal Turbine (VATT) energy harnessing efficiency by using modified blades with fixed and oscillating flap.

A Study of Fluid-Structure Interaction Problems for Floating Offshore Wind Turbines

This project aims at the development of a coupled model of hydrodynamics and aerodynamics in time domain for floating offshore wind turbines under the framework of the popular open source CFD toolbox OpenFOAM. Our work starts with an existing incompressible two-phase CFD solver which is developed on OpenFOAM. The solver is already able to deal with hydrodynamic problems for floating platforms with mooring system. So what we need to do is to develop new functionalities to handle the aerodynamic part.

Numerical Wave Tank Construction Using Source Term

Numerical wave flume is now being paid more and more attentions with the rise of wave energy since simulation of wave is the most primary task of studying a wave energy converter by numerical methods. Generally, they can be divided into two types. First, physics mechanism methods such as piston, paddle wave makers Second, pure numerical methods: adding mass source term or momentum source term into governing equations. The second type of wave generating methods stand out for their significant advantages comparing with the first type: first of all, unlike the first type of methods, adding source term into governing equation methods doesn��t require movement of generator which means it will not have the disadvantage of using dynamic mesh. This can avoid error caused by mesh motion and simplified calculation procedure. In addition, pure numerical methods can generate continuous incident wave while not being affected by reflected waves from obstructers.