Session: 41-01 Small-scale Wind Turbines

Paper Number: 154235

Experimental Performance Assessment of a Crossflow Turbine for Energy Generation From Moving Water 

Given that the continental United States has a theoretical river power resource of 1381 TWh/yr and a technically recoverable resource of 119.9 TWh/yr [1, 2], generating power from riverine, currents or man-made channels can reduce the reliance on fossil fuels for electricity. More importantly, when located near the point of need, energy generation from moving waters can become an attractive solution for areas where connectivity to a grid is not available or for areas subjected to disruptions caused by natural or accidental events. Toward advancing available technologies for efficient power generation, we focus on the performance assessment of a crossflow turbine when placed in moving waters. The need for such turbines to operate over a limited range of water speeds with a relatively high level of turbulence, unsteady effects with potential free surface effects, and the inherently unsteady hydrodynamics associated with the turbine present the need and opportunity for performance assessment of individual rotors or arrays. The experiments were carried out in the towing tank of the Davidson Laboratory at Stevens Institute of Technology. In these experiments, the turbine's rotational speed and generated torque were measured at different towing (or flow) speeds under different electric loads applied by adjusting an electromagnetic break to obtain different characteristic curves. These curves will serve as valuable data to establish and validate the accuracy of our high-fidelity hydrodynamic simulations and, consequently, guide further performance enhancement efforts.

 

References:

[1] Jacobson, P.T., Ravens, T.M., Cunningham, K.W. and Scott, G., 2012. Assessment and Mapping of the Riverine Hydrokinetic Resource in the Continental United States (No. DOE/EE/0002662-1). Electric Power Research Institute.

[2] Wiley, W., Tran, T.T., Lawson, M. and Barrington, M., 2023, June. Computational Fluid Dynamics Study of a Cross-Flow Marine Hydrokinetic Turbine and the Combined Influence of Struts and Helical Blades. In International Conference on Offshore Mechanics and Arctic Engineering (Vol. 86908, p. V008T09A009). American Society of Mechanical Engineers. 

Presenting Author: Mahmoud E. Abd El-Latief Stevens Institute of Technology

Presenting Author Biography: The presenting author holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, focusing on flapping airfoils. As a Research Assistant, he contributed to various wind turbine blade manufacturing projects. Currently, he is pursuing a Ph.D. in Ocean Engineering, where his research centers on energy harvesting, particularly through cross-flow turbines.

Authors:

Mahmoud E. Abd El-Latief Stevens Institute of Technology
Ahmed Shalaby Steven Institute of Technology
Ruben Paredes Steven Institute of Technology
Raju Datla Stevens Institute of Technology
Muhammad Hajj Stevens Institute of Technology