Design and performance evaluation of a submerged floating tidal current power generation device

Abstract Due to the difficulty and high cost of offshore power supply, there are still many remote islands which have not been fully developed and utilized. In order to solve this kind of problem, a new type of marine current turbine (MCT) power generation device was designed for Tuoji Island, Changdao County, Shandong Province, which is convenient for installation and maintenance. This paper presents both the prototype design and model test verification work. Limited by the size of circulating water channel, the test model was modeled and manufactured under the scale of 3:100, which means the turbine model is not able to meet the small scale geometry similarity and gravity equivalent at the same time. A light circular plate was designed to replace the resistance of the turbine as equal by means of CFD. Then it combines the main body and the equivalent disc to complete the mooring test, observing the attitude response of the device under different angles of current. On the basis, the hydrodynamic performance of the whole device model was observed under different inflow speeds and angles. The results of the model tests indicated that the prototype is relatively stable under the design condition.