Renewable Energy 42 (2012) 195e206

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Renewable Energy
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Performance of horizontal axis tidal current turbine by blade conguration

Chul hee Joa, *, Jin young Yimb, Kang hee Leeb, Yu ho Rhob
a
School of Engineering, Inha University, 253, Yonghyun-Dong, Nam-Gu, Incheon 402-751, Republic of Korea
b
Graduate School, Department of Naval Architecture & Ocean Engineering, Inha University, 253, Yonghyun-Dong, Nam-Gu, Incheon 402-751, Republic of Korea

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The west and south coastal region of Korea has very strong tidal current speeds and therefore accom-
Received 10 March 2011 modates many suitable sites for the application of TCP (Tidal Current Power). The maximum current
Accepted 9 August 2011 speed recorded in the south is up to 6.5 m/s. Unlike other renewable energy sources, TCP is an extremely
Available online 29 September 2011
reliable, predictable and continuous energy source as the current pattern and speed can be predicted
throughout the year. One of the essential components in a TCP device is the rotor converting the inow
Keywords:
current into the rotational energy. The design optimization of the rotor is very important to maximize the
TCP (Tidal Current Power)
power production. The performance of the rotor can be determined by various parameters including the
Renewable energy
Turbine design
number of blades, shape, sectional size, hub, diameters etc.
CWC (Circulating Water Channel) The blade of the rotor is one of the essential components which can convert tidal current energy into
CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) rotational energy to generate electricity. The variable blade properties determine the performance,
efciency and stability of the turbine system. This paper presents the design procedure for a 300 kW tidal
current turbine blade. The HAT turbine model was designed based on the wind mill turbine design
principles together with known turbine theories. To verify the compatibility of the turbine design
method and to analyze the properties of design factors, the 3D CFD model was applied with the ANSYS
CFX program. The characteristics and performances of the blades can be applied in the design of 300 KW
and larger capacity TCP rotors.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction interference rates of axial, transverse and diagonal arrangements of

Tidal current power is now recognized as the main clean power
resource in Korea where there are strong current regions in the
west and south coasts. Many researchers have studied tidal current
power systems. Garbuglia et al. (1993) and Paish et al. (1995)
introduced a new concept of tidal stream power system with
experiments in the sea [1,2]. Shiono et al. (1999) studied the
Darrieus-type device [3]. Walsum (1999) introduced the current
power system in Fundy [4]. Jo et al. (2008) published the experi-
mental results on the applications of tidal current power systems in
the cooling water weir [5]. To produce sufcient power, many
device units are required in the power farm region. Due to the
limited areas of the concentrated current, the arrangement of the
devices is very important to maximize the efciency and economic
viability of the farm. The optimization of arrangement is essential
in the multi-arrayed formation. Jo et al. (2007) presented the
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: chjo@inha.ac.kr (C. hee Jo).
rotors for changing incoming current speeds [6].
A turbine blade among components of a tidal current power
generator is a core device that converts the ow of tidal current into
a turning force.
Technology acquisition on tidal current power turbine opti-
mized design is difcult because currently, the literature on tidal
current power (TCP) turbine design is insufcient and even
developed countries avoid disclosing design technology. However,
considering that a horizontal axis tidal current power turbine is
based on the design theory of a horizontal axis wind power turbine
and uid is changed into seawater in the air, it is possible to design
a tidal current turbine in the sea based on the technique introduced
in wind power.
Performance evaluation methods on a tidal current power turbine
are experimentally performed in the real sea by producing an actual
product and a model test that carries out an experiment in a circu-
lating water channel (CWC) by producing a model and computational
uid dynamics (CFD) that simulates a CWC by using a computer.
The model test has the advantage that it can obtain highly
reliable data but it is expensive and requires a great deal of expe-
rience and time.

0960-1481/$ e see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.renene.2011.08.017
196 C.hee Jo et al. / Renewable Energy 42 (2012) 195e206
Fig. 1. Gyroscopic imbalances.
On the other hand, CFD can obtain various results at low cost
and is used in a variety of elds such as wind power and the uid
machinery industry etc.
This study evaluated the performance of a designed turbine by
comparing performance analysis using CFD with the result of the
model tested in a circulating water channel.
2. Determination of turbine design elements
2.1. Number and performance of turbine blade
The factors that determine a modern blade are stability, ef-
ciency, and the economic feasibility of the system.
In terms of stability, a disk is the most stable among rotating
mechanical component parts and has a predictable shape.
Compared to a 3-piece blade, for a 2-piece blade, since turbine
production cost is low, installation is straightforward and the tip
speed ratio when maximum efciency occurs is high, the gear cost
of the gear box can be lowered and the size of the generator can be
reduced.
However, since theoretical efciency is lower than that of a 3-
piece blade and the tip speed ratio is higher than that of a 3-
piece blade, considerable wake occurs and it therefore ranges
from being unfavorable to complex and cavitation is highly likely to
occur.
Due to the nature of a 2-piece blade, when a blade tip crosses the
tower while rotating, a strong impact is applied to the turbine due
to the tower effect and the turbine is vibrated because gyroscopic
imbalances occur as shown in Fig. 1.
In order to resolve these imbalances, a separate device is needed
and the turbine will become complicated structurally.
A 3-piece blade is a rotation element of a turbine and satises
the number of stable minimum wings required of a disk. For a 3-
piece blade, the start ow velocity is low compared to a 2-piece
blade and ranges from favorable to complex due to the lower
effect of the wake.
Fig. 2. S814 Airfoil shape.
Table 1
Specication of CWC.
Main particular Measuring section
Length (m) 6.0 2.3
Breadth (m) 1.0 1.0
Height (m) 3.0 0.9
Max.velocity (m/s) 1.2 -
Also, from an economic aspect, since a 3-piece blade can
maintain stable disk characteristics, it is not necessary to design
blades with more than 4 pieces.
Therefore, this study designed a tidal current power turbine
with a 3-piece blade.
2.2. Blade cross-sectional shape
There are several differences between an airfoil used in aero-
space engineering and an airfoil of a tidal turbine blade.
Since an airfoil for a tidal turbine blade is installed in water,
when the water is polluted, the blade is not easy to maintain or
repair. Therefore, an airfoil with a shape which is less sensitive to
surface roughness is needed. In addition, because various loads are
structurally imposed on the hub part, the wing tip must have
a gradually thick airfoil shape.
Also, unlike an aircraft, a wide range of data on the angle of
attack is needed.
The characteristics of a tidal current power turbine are very
similar to those of a wind power turbine. While a tidal current
power turbine uses a similar airfoil to that used in wind power,
there is a signicant difference between the viscosity and density of
air and seawater; a test and verication on the characteristics of an
airfoil in seawater are therefore required.
However, since the test and verication of this airfoil are beyond
the scope of this paper, this study used the S814 airfoil (Fig. 2),
previously adopted in other commonly used tidal current power
turbines.
3. Design of a turbine blade
3.1. Determination of design velocity and turbine size
Prior to the decision of the design current speed, an oceano-
graphic survey on the tidal characteristics of an area where instal-
lation of a tidal current generator is proposed should be carried out.
Fig. 3. Circulating Water Channel (Inha University ocean engineering lab).
 C.hee Jo et al. / Renewable Energy 42 (2012) 195e206 197

Fig. 4. Distributions of chord length.

This is because in the case of a large capacity turbine, the

Fig. 5. Angle denition of an airfoil.
distribution of tidal current according to depth of water cannot be
ignored and a control system that can respond to the angle in which
currents ow should be considered.
Also, a tidal current generator installed in the ocean, unlike wind
power, has limitations of turbine size according to the depth of
water of the installed generator. To design the current speed of
a tidal current turbine, a velocity is chosen that can calculate the
maximum amount of power generation in the target waters by
considering the tide range in addition to data showing the direction
and speed of the tidal current such as increase in wind power.
This paper tries to compare and verify turbine performance
measured in a circulating water channel experiment and predicted
from CFD analysis.
Therefore, the design current speed selected for the turbine is
1.0 m/s and the diameter of the turbine is 0.5 m by considering the
specications of the circulating water channel of Table 1.

Fig. 6. Distribution of twist angle.

198 C.hee Jo et al. / Renewable Energy 42 (2012) 195e206

Table 2
TCP turbine blade design parameters.

Design parameters Values

Prated: rated power [W] 36.23
Cp: Estimated power coefcient 0.4
h: Estimated power coefcient 0.9
Urated: Rated current velocity [m/s] 1.0
r: Sea water density [kg/m3] 1025
l: Tip speed ratio 5
D: Turbine diameter [m] 0.5
N: Blade number [EA] 3
u: Angular speed [rpm] 191

Fig. 9. Solid 3D model of TCP turbine [ISO view].

Table 3
TCP turbine blade design result.

No. r/R r [mm] Chord length [mm] Twist angle [degrees]

1 0.05 12.5 -
2 0.10 25.0 - -
3 0.15 37.5 30.000 -
4 0.20 50.0 Transition Transition
5 0.25 62.5 63.100 16.682
6 0.30 75.0 60.363 13.929
7 0.35 87.5 57.624 11.462
8 0.40 100.0 54.913 9.783
9 0.45 112.5 52.202 8.432
10 0.50 125.0 49.490 7.324
11 0.55 137.5 46.779 6.404
12 0.60 150.0 44.067 5.631
13 0.65 162.5 41.356 4.974
14 0.70 175.0 38.645 4.415
15 0.75 187.5 35.933 3.942 Fig. 10. 3D model of TCP turbine [Top view].
16 0.80 200.0 33.222 3.784
17 0.85 212.5 30.510 3.550
18 0.90 225.0 27.799 3.247
19 0.95 237.5 25.088 3.092
20 1.00 250.0 22.376 3.062

Fig. 11. Computational domain of turbine.

Fig. 7. Framework of TCP turbine blade [ISO view].

Fig. 8. Framework of TCP turbine blade [Top view]. Fig. 12. Grid system of rotor.
 C.hee Jo et al. / Renewable Energy 42 (2012) 195e206 199

3.2. Decision of output and rated number of rotations   

16pr 1 R
C sin2 tan1 (4)
CL B 3 lr
To estimate the power of a testing blade, substitute the
following values in Eq. (1). C: chord length
When an estimated power coefcient (Cp) is 0.4, the power train B: number of blade pieces (3)
efciency coefcient (h) is 0.9, the seawater density (r) is 1025[kg/ l: Tip speed ratio (5)
m3], the diameter of the turbine (D) is 0.5 m, the velocity (U) is 1 m/ R: entire rotor radius of a blade (0.5 m)
s, and the expected output of the turbine is 36.23[W]. r: a blade radius of the airfoil
! Fig. 4 shows the blade chord length calculated by the Schmitz
rpD2 U 3 numerical formula.
Pexpect hCp (1)
8 If the Schmitz numerical formula is used as it is, the chord length
is innitely larger as it extends to the root part, which is where
The design tip speed ratio (TSR, l) is 5 and the rated number of structural defects will occur. Therefore, chord length should be
rotations is 191 rpm. determined as shown in Fig. 3 by approximating linearly based on
a distance of 30% from the blade tip by considering structural defect
settlement, ease of manufacture and economic feasibility.
3.3. Correction of coefcient of loss of blade tip

3.5. Distribution determination of twist angle

Tip loss occurs due to the vortex of blade wing tip. In order to
predict tip loss Eq. (2) presented by Ludwig Prandtl in 1919 was
The denition on the angle of a blade element is as shown in
applied to the tip loss prediction model.
Fig. 5. a is the angle of attack of an airfoil and F is the uid inlet angle
 p  and is dened as the uid inlet direction (UN(1  a)) and relative
2
cos1 eN=21m=m 1lm =1a
2 2
ftip (2) tangential velocity of uid by rotation of a blade Ur(1 a0 ).
p
The twist angle b is dened so that the sectional airfoil of a blade
Here, m is the ratio of radial direction from hub to tip and is can have an optimal life force coefcient depending on the radius of
dened as r/R. R is the entire rotor radius of a blade and r is the the rotor, as for the following Eq. (5).
blade radius of the airfoil. The axial direction velocity component of  
2 R
ow induced by the actuator disk is called where a is the axial ow b tan1 a (5)
3 lr
induction factor and is expressed as Eq. (3).
b: Twist angle
Udisk UN  aUN (3) a: Angle of attack
This twist angle is expressed as a non linear value depending on
Since a, the axial ow induction factor, cannot be determined
the radius of the rotor and the calculated result is as shown in Fig. 6.
through repetitive calculation from the initial design stage, the
ideal value of 1/3 induced from the Betz limit is applied. N refers to
the number of blade wings and 3 pieces were applied. 3.6. Tidal current turbine blade design result

3.4. Determination of chord length distribution
The method for determining the chord length of an airfoil is
generally decided by Eq. (4), as presented by Schmitz as follows.
The nal design value of Table 3 was calculated based on the design
parameter of Table 2. Point coordinates required to visualize a 3 D
model were obtained and the frameworks were plotted as shown in
Figs. 7 and 8 from the design information of Table 3 and modeled as
shown in Figs. 9 and 10 by using CATIA, a 3D modeling program.

Fig. 13. Cp curve.

200 C.hee Jo et al. / Renewable Energy 42 (2012) 195e206

4. Performance analysis using CFD
4.1. Calculation conditions
Fig. 11 shows the internal domain where a turbine rotates, the
external domain where the uid ows and the boundary condition.
The external domain was then modeled into a rectangular shape
the same as that for the Measuring Section of the circulating water
channel for comparison with the experiment of the circulating
water channel.
The external domain is a rectangular parallelepiped of width
1 m, length 4.75 m, height 0.8 m and the internal rotation area is
a cylinder of diameter 0.5 m and height 0.11 m.

Fig. 14. Rotor pressure distributions (Pressure side).

 C.hee Jo et al. / Renewable Energy 42 (2012) 195e206 201

Normal speed condition was used as an inlet condition of the
external domain and the incoming velocity is 1.0 m/s, which is the
design velocity.
The external domain outlet area used an opening condition so
that it can be calculated according to the ux change due to the
turbine. The walls and oors of the external domain used wall
conditions that were similar to the environment of the circulating
water channel and the upper side used the free slip condition.
The general connect - frozen rotor condition was used as the
interface condition of the meeting part of the internal rotating area
and the external area, while the mesh connect method used the GGI
condition.
Also, the change of uid passing through the turbine can be
calculated by using the wall condition on the surface of the turbine.
And the torque values were calculated by ANSYS CFX Post-
processor.

Fig. 15. Rotor pressure distributions (Suction side).

202 C.hee Jo et al. / Renewable Energy 42 (2012) 195e206

4.2. Mesh and turbulence model
For the prediction of torque that occurs in the blade, a dense
prism-layer was composed around the blade and the rest of the
area was composed as a tetra-prism mesh. The turbine rotating area
is an unstructured mesh consisting of 2,671,523 elements and
565,443 nodes and the external area surrounding the turbine is also
unstructured mesh consisting of 169,819 nodes and 947,896
elements. Fig. 12 shows the composed grid system.
The turbulence model performed analysis by considering the
unsteady ow eld around an airfoil and using an SST model. SST
model can accurately predict size and onset of ow peel caused by
an adverse pressure gradient by calculating the transport of
turbulence shearing stress and the accuracy of analysis is obtained
regardless of the y of the mesh because it can be easily extended
into an automatic wall treatment.
Calculation was performed with a duel core CPU (3.0 GHz*2) and
the number of repetitive calculations was converged prior to the

Fig. 16. Blade pressure distributions.

 C.hee Jo et al. / Renewable Energy 42 (2012) 195e206 203

100 repetitive calculations. The condition of convergence deter-
mination is a margin of error of less than 104 and calculation
performance on a single case required about 3 h.
4.3. CFD analysis result and review
The performance curve of a tidal current turbine on a 1.0 m/s
design velocity is shown in Fig. 13 by calculating the torque value in
6 analysis results from 2 to 7 of tip speed ratio.
The output coefcient showed to be more than 0.4 over a rela-
tively wide range from tip speed ratio 3 to 7 and the maximum
value of the output coefcient was calculated as about 0.51 in the
section of tip speed ratio 5.
Through CFD analysis, the pressure on the front and back
sides of the turbine blade as shown in Figs. 14e19, the ambient
pressure acting on the airfoil, the turbulence kinetic energy and
the ow of streamline passing through the turbine were
visualized.

Fig. 17. Blade Turbulence kinetic energy distributions.

204 C.hee Jo et al. / Renewable Energy 42 (2012) 195e206
Figs. 16e18 show the values in airfoil section according to tip
speed ratio and uid ows from top to bottom of the picture and
the blade proceeds from right to left.
Therefore, the upper airfoil of the picture shows the pressure
side and the lower airfoil shows the suction side.
The turbine designed in this paper is the lift type and uses lift
caused by the pressure difference of uid according to the asym-
metric shape of the cross section of the airfoil.
For the acting face of the turbine shown in Fig. 14, as the tip
speed ratio increases, the pressure in the region near the tip and the
leading edge continues to increase and at tip speed ratio 7, negative
pressure occurs at the tip part.
For the suction side of the turbine as shown in Fig. 15, negative
pressure continues to increase up to tip speed ratio 5 and then
gradually the increase in negative pressure slows down.
Comparing the pressure side with the suction side, the pressure
difference of about 4.0  104[pa] occurs.
For the pressure around the blade as shown in Fig. 16, as tip
speed ratio increases, the pressure near the leading edge of the
pressure side gradually increases and negative pressure of the
suction side also gradually increases.
Passing through tip speed ratio 5, a negative pressure occurs on the
pressure side of the maximum thickness position and the pressure
difference between the pressure side and suction side also decreases.
Fig. 18. Blade streamline and velocity distributions.
As the pressure difference decreases, the lift force decreases and
the torque is reduced.
At tip speed ratio 2 shown in Fig. 17, the uid inlet angle owing
into the blade is larger because the tip speed ratio is low.
Therefore, life force dramatically decreases because the angle of
attack increases and a stall occurs.
As tip speed ratio increases and reaches 5, it becomes closer to
the angle of attack of the maximum lift to drag ratio and maximum
lift force occurs.
After passing tip speed ratio 5, as it moves toward the trailing
edge of the blade, turbulence occurs because the uid does not ow
along the surface and falls off and drag caused by turbulence
reduces the torque of the turbine.
Also in Fig. 18, the stall in tip speed ratio 2 can be observed and as
tip speed ratio increases, it can be found that the uid inlet angle
reduces.
If the tip speed ratio becomes lower than 5, the blade is placed with
a greater angle of attack than that of the maximum Lift-Drag ratio and
as the angle of attack increases, a stall occurs and torque is reduced.
If the tip speed ratio becomes greater than 5, lift decreases and
torque is reduced because the angle of attack becomes smaller than
that of maximum Lift-Drag ratio.
From Fig. 19, the rotor streamline can be veried, which expands
when passing through the turbine.
 C.hee Jo et al. / Renewable Energy 42 (2012) 195e206 205

Fig. 19. Rotor streamline distributions.

As tip speed ratio increases, the rotor streamline expands to the
maximum at tip speed ratio 5 where maximum efciency appears.
The wake caused by the turbine develops and becomes more
complicated as the tip speed ratio increases.
5. Conclusions
This study performed the shape design of a tidal current power
turbine from turbine design theory and a 3-D ow analysis by CFD
and the following conclusions were drawn.
A horizontal axis tidal current power turbine was designed with
a diameter of 0.5 m using S814 airfoil by considering tip loss based
on turbine design theory including blade element theory and this
was embodied by using CATIA, a 3D modeling program.
An output curve and torque curve were drawn by using ANSYS
CFX V11 SP1, a commercial code, and performing 3-d ow analysis
of a 3D model.
At design ow 1.0 m/s, the maximum output coefcient was
about 0.51 at tip speed ratio 5 and maximum torque was about
3.65 N-m at tip speed ratio 3.2.
206 C.hee Jo et al. / Renewable Energy 42 (2012) 195e206
The inuence that ow phenomenon (pressure, speed, streamline
distribution) around a turbine has on the tip speed ratio was inves-
tigated by analyzing the ow around the blade with a Post-processor.
As tip speed ratio increases, negative pressure acting on the suction
side increases and at a more than optimal tip speed ratio, the output
decreases because negative pressure occurs on the pressure side.
Also, at less than optimal tip speed ratio, output decreases due
to turbulence on the suction side and over the optimal tip speed
ratio, the output is reduced by the turbulence of the trailing edge
and the signicantly generated wake affects the ow of uid.
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by the Human Resources Develop-
ment of the Korea Institute of Energy, Technology Evaluation and
Planning (KETEP) grant funded by the Korea Government Ministry
of Knowledge Economy (No. 20094020100070).
This work is the outcome of a Manpower Development Program
for Marine Energy by the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime
Affairs (MLTM)
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[4] Walsum W. Offshore engineering for tidal power. Proceedings of the ninth
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[5] Jo CH, Lee CH, Rho YH and Yim JY. Floating tidal current power application in
cooling water channel. The Korean Association of Ocean Science and Tech-
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[6] Jo CH, Par KK and Im SW. Interaction of multi arrayed current power genera-
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