Sandia National Laboratories evaluates ORPC’s RivGen turbine

Sandia National Laboratories’ water power technologies group, together with ORPC, has performed high fidelity evaluation of ORPC’s RivGen turbine.

The Sandia-ORPC team applied high fidelity modeling to evaluate the performance of the RivGen prototype turbine generation unit, a cross-flow turbine, which exhibits more complex flow physics than the more common axial-flow turbine.

The models used to predict power performance were validated using field measurements collected by ORPC in Cobscook Bay in 2014.

Numerical experiments were then conducted to investigate and quantify parasitic drag effects on turbine performance and how these effects could be reduced to improve performance.

The results gained from this study provided information that can be used for modifications on the next design version for the RivGen turbine, it is stated in Sandia National Laboratories’ annual report.

The study also demonstrated the value of high fidelity modeling when resolving the complex 3D flow effects on performance encountered with complex turbine architectures.

High performance computing at Sandia National Laboratories is associated with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Wind and Water Power Technology Office mission of advancing the commercialization of tidal energy converters by improving their power performance and reducing their levelized cost of energy.

Sandia National Laboratories is operated and managed by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation. Sandia Corporation operates Sandia National Laboratories as a contractor for the U.S.

As a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC), Sandia may perform work for industry responding to certain types of federal government solicitations.

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Image: ORPC