U.S. Department of EnergyOffice of Scientific and Technical Information
TEAMER: Water Tunnel Data from Testing the Pterofin Skimmer Concept
Abstract
Pterofin's Skimmer concept relies on a flapping and pitching hydrofoil to extract hydrokinetic energy from water flows. The concept aims to utilize unsteady fluid dynamics phenomena (added mass, shed vorticity, and unsteady boundary layer development) to achieve higher lift coefficients, enabling increased power density of the hydrokinetic device and a fundamental shift in the rpm/torque scaling of the power take off compared with turbines. The Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State, in collaboration with Pterofin, designed and built a proof-of-concept flapping/pitching mechanism which was subsequently tested in ARL's 12-inch water tunnel facility. The mechanical power supplied to or extracted from the mechanism was measured for a range of hydrofoils provided by Pterofin over operating conditions including reduced frequency, Reynolds number, and the ratio between pitching and flapping amplitudes. The power lost to friction in the mechanism was removed from the net power measurement by means of a bare hub tare, with the resultant hydrodynamic power being used to calculate a mechanism-independent and non-dimensional power coefficient. The product of this effort is a dataset describing the power coefficient of a hydrofoil having simultaneous pitching and flapping motions, both of which are approximately sinusoidal. Power coefficients were collected for a range ofmore »
- Publication Date:
- Other Number(s):
- 517
- DOE Contract Number:
- EE0008895
- Research Org.:
- Marine and Hydrokinetic Data Repository (MHKDR); Pennsylvania State University, Applied Research Laboratory
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Water Power Technologies Office (EE-4WP)
- Collaborations:
- Pennsylvania State University, Applied Research Laboratory
- Subject:
- 16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER; CEC; CFD; MATLAB; RFTS3; TEAMER; code; current enery converter; energy; flapping; hydrofoil; hydrokinetic; marine; oscillating hydrofoil; pitching; proof of concept; pterofin; reduced frequency; skimmer; software package; technology; turbine; unsteady; unsteady fluid dynamics; water tunnel
- OSTI Identifier:
- 2282051
- DOI:
- https://doi.org/10.15473/2282051
Citation Formats
Jaffa, Nicholas, Walsh, Justin, Pique, Alexander, Bechtel, Jonathan, and Durachko, Timothy. TEAMER: Water Tunnel Data from Testing the Pterofin Skimmer Concept. United States: N. p., 2023.
Web. doi:10.15473/2282051.
Jaffa, Nicholas, Walsh, Justin, Pique, Alexander, Bechtel, Jonathan, & Durachko, Timothy. TEAMER: Water Tunnel Data from Testing the Pterofin Skimmer Concept. United States. doi:https://doi.org/10.15473/2282051
Jaffa, Nicholas, Walsh, Justin, Pique, Alexander, Bechtel, Jonathan, and Durachko, Timothy. 2023.
"TEAMER: Water Tunnel Data from Testing the Pterofin Skimmer Concept". United States. doi:https://doi.org/10.15473/2282051. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/2282051. Pub date:Thu Jul 13 04:00:00 UTC 2023
@article{osti_2282051,
title = {TEAMER: Water Tunnel Data from Testing the Pterofin Skimmer Concept},
author = {Jaffa, Nicholas and Walsh, Justin and Pique, Alexander and Bechtel, Jonathan and Durachko, Timothy},
abstractNote = {Pterofin's Skimmer concept relies on a flapping and pitching hydrofoil to extract hydrokinetic energy from water flows. The concept aims to utilize unsteady fluid dynamics phenomena (added mass, shed vorticity, and unsteady boundary layer development) to achieve higher lift coefficients, enabling increased power density of the hydrokinetic device and a fundamental shift in the rpm/torque scaling of the power take off compared with turbines. The Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State, in collaboration with Pterofin, designed and built a proof-of-concept flapping/pitching mechanism which was subsequently tested in ARL's 12-inch water tunnel facility. The mechanical power supplied to or extracted from the mechanism was measured for a range of hydrofoils provided by Pterofin over operating conditions including reduced frequency, Reynolds number, and the ratio between pitching and flapping amplitudes. The power lost to friction in the mechanism was removed from the net power measurement by means of a bare hub tare, with the resultant hydrodynamic power being used to calculate a mechanism-independent and non-dimensional power coefficient. The product of this effort is a dataset describing the power coefficient of a hydrofoil having simultaneous pitching and flapping motions, both of which are approximately sinusoidal. Power coefficients were collected for a range of primary design variables including: - Reduced frequency: 0.01 to 0.95 - Pitching/flapping peak angle ratio: 1.5 to 3.0 - Chord-based Reynolds number: 60,000 to 560,000 Secondary design variables relating to the hydrofoil geometry were explored including: - Aspect ratio - Planform shape - Section thickness distribution - Hydrofoil position relative to the pitching axis - Hydrofoil sweep angle relative to the pitching axis Measured data are provided in mean and time series formats. MATLAB scripts are provided which can be used to generate figures of time-averaged and phase-averaged hydrodynamic power coefficients calculated from the measured data. A complete description of the experiment and data reduction can be found in the Post Access Report for the Pterofin Skimmer test effort which will be available on the TEAMER website. This work was supported by the Pacific Energy Ocean Trust via a TEAMER award.},
doi = {10.15473/2282051},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Jul 13 04:00:00 UTC 2023},
month = {Thu Jul 13 04:00:00 UTC 2023}
}