Ji, R.; Sun, K.; Wang, S.; Li, Y., and Zhang, L., 2018. Analysis of hydrodynamic characteristics of ocean ship two-unit vertical axis tidal current turbines with different arrangements. In: Liu, Z.L. and Mi, C. (eds.), Advances in Sustainable Port and OceanEngineering. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 83, pp. 98–108. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN0749-0208.

In order to study the hydrodynamic performance of the two-unit turbinesin different arrangements, a reasonable turbine layout plan was proposed to improve the power generation efficiency of tidal power stations. In this paper, the transient numerical simulation of a three-blade vertical-axis tidal current turbine is carried out, and the hydrodynamic performance of the turbine units with different arrangement (tandem, parallel, and staggered) is analyzed, and the influence of the mutual interference between the turbine units on the efficiency of the power generation is explored. Taking into account the same characteristics of the profile of the vertical axistidal current turbine blades along the extension, the model is simplified to two-dimensional. Firstly, based on the open source software OpenFOAM, a k-ω SST turbulence model and a PIMPLE algorithm are used for a 2D vertical axis tidal current turbine. A numerical simulation method is proposed and compared with the experimental results to verify the correctness of the numerical simulation method. Then the operation of a single turbine was simulated, and the variation of energy utilization with the tip speed ratio and the force characteristics of the turbine during operation were obtained. Finally, the vertical axis tidal turbine units with different arrangements are analyzed in detail, and the energy efficiency, force characteristics, and wake field of the vertical axis turbine units are compared and analyzed. For tandem tidal turbine units, the flow distance Dx of the two-unit turbines is used as a variable to study the effect of tidal turbine spacing on the hydrodynamic performance of downstream turbines. For parallel tidal turbines, the influence of the horizontal distance Dy and three different rotations on the hydrodynamic performance of tidal turbines is studied. For staggered turbine units, the relative distance Dr and the relative position angle ψ of the turbine are used as variables to study the relationship between the capacity of the turbine and the two parameters.