PFI-TT: Advancing the Technology Readiness of Pylon Fairings for Tidal Turbines

Lehigh University, Bethlehem PA

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is to redesign and test a key component (the pylon) of a tidal turbine to generate energy. A pylon that doesn't affect the flow would increase energy production and would require less energy to run. This would also increase the operational lifetime of the turbine. This project will conduct laboratory experiments to mimic the conditions of a marine energy deployment site in order to evaluate the best design. The knowledge acquired from these tests under a variety of flow conditions could be applied to numerous structures in the marine renewable energy industry and beyond. In addition to the scientific discoveries, the educational goal underlines the PI's commitment to developing the entrepreneurial and leadership skills of graduate students and post-docs. Planned educational initiatives include active engagement with mentors from the marine energy industry and a highly immersive week-long entrepreneurship experience through an in-house program. The proposed project will evaluate modified pylons that would include fairings composed of straight, convex, and concave plates behind the pylon. The fairings affect the downstream flow by altering separation lines as well as the shear layer and the entrainment layer in the wake of the pylon. This leads to a clean flow to the downstream rotor, minimizing the velocity reduction at the rotor disk and inflow angular variations. We propose synergistic experimental and computational studies to evaluate pylon fairings at three different turbulence intensity levels that mimic the characteristic of potential tidal energy deployment sites. An active grid turbulence generator developed by the PI will be used to create elevated turbulence conditions in laboratory experiments. In addition, computational fluid dynamics studies would also be conducted to address the scaling issue - i.e., how the laboratory experiments would map to the full-scale pylon at the developer's site. The entire database will be made available to the marine renewable energy industry and other marine-related industries that contend with the consequences of vortex shedding. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.