TEAMER: Water Tunnel Data from Testing the Pterofin Skimmer Concept

Description

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.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
57 Measured and derived data from tests Pterofin0019 - Pterofin0030, See readme.txt contained within this submission, and the Post Access Report for the Pterofin Skimmer Test available on the TEAMER website for further information. https://mhkdr.openei.org/files/517/data2%20%281%29.zip
53 A log of the configuration and run conditions associated with each dataset. https://mhkdr.openei.org/files/517/Pterofin%20Test%20Log.xlsx
47 Introduction to the data resources included with this submission. https://mhkdr.openei.org/files/517/readme.txt
57 Measured and derived data from tests Pterofin0032 - Pterofin0042, See readme.txt contained within this submission, and the Post Access Report for the Pterofin Skimmer Test available on the TEAMER website for further information. https://mhkdr.openei.org/files/517/data3%20%281%29.zip
57 The archive "MATLAB Scripts" contains several scripts and functions useful for post-processing and displaying test data. Scripts may refer to functions so please store them in the same working folder. Data paths may need to be entered to match the user's file structure. These scripts and functions have been tested on MATLAB r2020b. https://mhkdr.openei.org/files/517/MATLAB%20Scripts.zip
33 A document describing the experiment, data resources, and data reduction process. https://mhkdr.openei.org/files/517/Pterofin-Post-Access-Report.pdf
57 Measured and derived data from tests Pterofin0001 - Pterofin0018, See readme.txt contained within this submission, and the Post Access Report for the Pterofin Skimmer Test available on the TEAMER website for further information. https://mhkdr.openei.org/files/517/data1.zip

Tags

  • pitching
  • cec
  • rfts3
  • hydrofoil
  • hydrokinetic
  • software-package
  • current-enery-converter
  • reduced-frequency
  • matlab
  • turbine
  • marine
  • water-tunnel
  • unsteady-fluid-dynamics
  • proof-of-concept
  • skimmer
  • flapping
  • code
  • unsteady
  • teamer
  • oscillating-hydrofoil
  • technology
  • cfd
  • pterofin
  • energy

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