Performance Analysis of Diffuser-Augmented Composite Marine Current Turbine Using CFD

A wound composite material wheel has been developed and is intended to be used for many purposes. One of these applications is marine current turbine. Diffuser-augmented turbines are capable of concentrating the energy in water. If a diffuser shaped shroud encloses a conventional horizontal axis turbine, the low pressure at the exit of the diffuser draws a larger mass flow through the turbine. This permits more power to be extracted from the water. In this paper, numerical analysis of a diffuser-augmented composite material marine current turbine (CMMCT) is developed and compared with a conventional bare turbine. The CFD results show that the extracted power of a diffuser-augmented CMMCT can be 5 times larger than the power extracted by a bare turbine of the same turbine area. The results of the analysis provide an insight into the hydrodynamic design and operation of a diffuser-augmented turbine in order to shorten the design period and improve technical performance.