Yes / This study presents results from laboratory experiments to investigate the wake structure in the lee side of a scaled three-bladed horizontal axis tidal stream turbine with a mono-pile support structure. Experiments are conducted for a range of approaching flow velocity and installation height of rotor. Analysis of the results shows that bed shear stress increases with the increase of approaching velocity and decrease of installation height within 2D (D is the diameter of the rotor) downstream of the rotor. The flow field within 2D downstream of the rotor is greatly influenced by the presence of nacelle and mono-pile. Low stream-wise flow velocity and large turbulence intensity level is detected along the flume center right behind the nacelle and mono-pile from 1D to 2D downstream of the rotor. Stream-wise velocity at the blade tip height lower than the nacelle increases sharply from 1D to 2D and gradually grows afterwards. Correspondingly, the turbulence intensity decreases quickly from 1D to 2D and slowly afterwards. Large bed shear stress is measured from 1D to 2D, which is closely related to turbulence induced by the mono-pile. It is also found that the presence of the mono-pile might make the flow field more ‘disc-shaped’. / National Key Research and Development Program of China (No.2017YFC1404200), the Marine Renewable Energy Research Project of State Oceanic Administration (No.GHME2015GC01), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of China (No.2017B696X14) and the Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province, China (No.KYCX17_0448)

The present time demands emission-free and carbon-free sources of energy. This fact is not only subject of international agreements and European Union regulations, but also the state of environment points out to an essential change in energy generation of mankind. Tidal stream provides very stable and predictable source of “green” energy. Compared to other renewable energy sources tidal stream turbines in exceptional localities are able to supply energy continuously, making them base load source. The aim of the thesis was to create an extensive document with recent tidal stream power information, which has not been available in Czech language yet. Last part of the research is focused on co-locating tidal stream and off-shore wind turbines. Second part of the thesis is dedicated to aerodynamic design of single-stage horizontal axis tidal stream turbine with rated electric power of 1 MW. Calculation according to the blade cascade theory was used to design blade geometry and to find rotor diameter of 14 meters for rated stream velocity of 3.05 m/s.

The tidal stream industry has seen large growth in recent years, and the number of pre-commercial scale devices currently being tested reflects this development. However, commercialising this technology whilst showing that their environmental impacts is minimal remains a challenge. The impact on benthic communities is not considered to be a key strategic consenting issue, yet it is anticipated that the benthic habitat will change as a result of the presence of tidal turbines. To date, only single tidal turbine devices have been installed to demonstrate the application of tidal stream technology but despite successful tests there are still uncertainties surrounding the quantitative impacts these turbines have on local benthic communities. Unlike the wind industry, where physical effects of wind turbines have been catalogued through deployment of thousands of turbines, the tidal stream industry lacks these array scale quantitative data. Local impacts are known, but understanding the scale of the impacts and their relative significance of large arrays remains unknown. Tidal turbines (both single and arrays) interact with the hydrodynamics by decreasing the near field current flow directly in its wake through energy extraction and the drag caused by the physical structure. However, turbines may also affect the far field hydrodynamics, altering bed characteristics, sediment transport regimes and suspended sediment concentrations. As benthic habitats are closely linked to the physical seabed composition and the hydrodynamic conditions, the benthic environment is affected by to changes in the current flow. This thesis presents a series of studies investigating the interaction between tidal turbines and the benthic environment. Based on the hydrodynamic modelling software, TELEMAC2D, a numerical model has been developed to investigate the hydrodynamic impact of a single tidal array at Ramsey Sound, Pembrokeshire as well as the cumulative impact of multiple tidal developments in the Irish Sea. Based on the results of the models, the hydrodynamic outputs were used as inputs to drive a species distribution model, based on the software MaxEnt, to investigate how the distribution of benthic species altered in the presence of a 10MW tidal array at Ramsey Sound. Results of the study showed the development would have a minimal negative impact on the benthic environment.

Tidal stream energy has gained attention as a source of predictable and renewable energy. Devices resembling underwater wind turbines, placed in fast tidal streams, have been proposed to extract this energy. Arrays of many such devices will need to be deployed to deliver a significant amount of energy to the electricity grid. One consequence of energy extraction is that the array provides a resistance to the tidal stream, which may change the local and far field hydrodynamics, which in turn affects the power available to the array. Array-scale hydrodynamic changes affect the flow presented to the devices, which in turn affects the total resistance the array provides to the flow. This thesis is concerned with the interactions between device, array, and the tidal stream resource, to better understand the power potential of turbine arrays. Linear momentum actuator disc theory is employed to describe the operation of an idealised turbine array partially spanning a wide channel. The model is comprised of two quasi-independent sub-models, an array-scale model, describing flow phenomena around the array, which provides the upstream boundary condition to the device-scale model, describing the flow around a device. The thrust applied by the array is the sum of the thrust applied by the devices, completing the sub-model coupling. The numerical simulation of arrays in depth-averaged simulations is then investigated using the two-scale concept developed in the analytic partial-array model. It is shown that the device-scale flow must be modelled with a sub-grid scale model in order to correctly describe the unresolved device-scale flow and hence estimate the power available to an idealised array. Turbulence modelling in depth-averaged simulations of turbine arrays is also discussed. Temporal variations in tidal amplitude and strength mean that generator capacity will need to be economically matched to the available resource. As device performance may consequently depart from the relationship derived in idealised models when power capping is employed, blade element momentum theory is modified to parameterise tidal turbine performance during power capping. The array-scale effect of power capping is studied in depth-averaged simulations, in which it is shown that a significant reduction in device thrust may occur during power capping, reducing the impact of energy extraction from the tidal stream.

This study presents a numerical investigation of a generic horizontal axis cross-flow marine turbine. The numerical tool used is the commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics package ANSYS FLUENT 12.0. The numerical model, using the SST k-w turbulence model, is validated against static, dynamic pitching blade and rotating turbine data. The work embodies two main investigations. The first is concerned with the influence of turbine solidity (ratio of net blade chord to circumference) on turbine performance, and the second with the influence of blockage (ratio of device frontal area to channel crosssection area) and free surface deformation on the hydrodynamics of energy extraction in a constrained channel. Turbine solidity was investigated by simulating flows through two-, three- and four-bladed turbines, resulting in solidities of 0.019, 0.029 and 0.038, respectively. The investigation was conducted for two Reynolds numbers, Re = O(10^5) & O(10^6), to reflect laboratory and field scales. Increasing the number of blades from two to four led to an increase in the maximum power coefficient from 0.43 to 0.53 for the lower Re and from 0.49 to 0.56 for the higher Re computations. Furthermore, the power curve was found to shift to a lower range of tip speed ratios when increasing solidity. The effects of flow confinement and free surface deformation were investigated by simulating flows through a three-bladed turbine with solidity 0.125 at Re = O(10^6) for channels that resulted in cross-stream blockages of 12.5% to 50%. Increasing the blockage led to a substantial increase in the power and basin efficiency; when approximating the free surface as a rigid lid, the highest power coefficient and basin efficiency computed were 1.18 and 0.54, respectively. Comparisons between the corresponding rigid lid and free surface simulations, where Froude number, Fr = 0.082, rendered similar results at the lower blockages, but at the highest blockage an increase in power and basin efficiency of up to 7% for the free surface simulations over that achieved with a rigid lid boundary condition. For the free surface simulations with Fr = 0.082, the energy extraction resulted in a drop in water depth of up to 0.7%. An increase in Fr from 0.082 to 0.131 resulted in an increase maximum power of 3%, but a drop in basin efficiency of 21%.

The addition of renewable energy in a previously diesel-powered off-grid micro-grid results in what is known in the field as a Stand-Alone Hybrid Renewable Energy System (HRES). Such initiative is a near-term target of both federal and provincial governments in Canada. Not only does it reduce environmental hazards like leaks, spills and air pollution, but the combination of renewable energy and fossil fuel generators can increase stability and lower the cost of electricity. It is deemed a crucial step towards a clean energy future, but also a necessity in the reconciliation process with Indigenous Peoples of Canada - many of who inhabit off-grid communities. The addition of renewable energy can greatly increase the independence of a community by reducing reliability on external diesel suppliers and creating job opportunities. To be successful, HRES need to be carefully planned; the variable and uncertain behaviour of natural resources add a level of complexity to the preliminary design stage. Energy systems are therefore simulated and optimized to estimate the lifecycle cost by determining the nature and capacity of their components and their operational strategy. Chapter 2 goes over the preliminary design stage of two HRES in British Columbian communities. Many modelling tools are available, ranging from full-factorial and linear optimization techniques that can solve single-objective problems, to meta-heuristic algorithms. One of the distinctions between different HRES modelling tools is the foresight horizon being used. Linear programming tools commonly have a perfect foresight over the typical year analysed, for both demand and natural resources. This can lead to an overly optimistic prediction of the lifecycle cost of a system when the reality of implementations comes with uncertainties. On the other hand, tools that use myopic foresight, or no knowledge of future parameters, can lead to pessimistic lifecycle cost estimates since the demand and power output of certain renewable energy technologies, like solar panels, can be known within a few hours. The purpose of Chapter 3 of this thesis is to guide readers towards the right tool in the context of energy system modelling for the preliminary design of HRES. It was found that the degree of importance of choosing the appropriate foresight approach is a function of renewable energy penetration, autocorrelation, and storage capacity. A system with a high renewable energy share, a low short-term (few hours) autocorrelation, and an optimal storage size will result in the highest NPC difference between the two methods. When planning for long-term HRES design, the choice of the foresight horizon can either be representative of a lower/upper cost boundary (perfect and myopic foresight respectively) or of the real-time predictability of the power output of the chosen renewable energy power source. The use of energy system modelling tools is often reserved for highly qualified personnel and is therefore costly for prospective communities. To improve community readiness with minimal investment, a simple alternative to energy system modelling is proposed in Chapter 4 for the integration of tidal stream turbines in British Columbia. A series of three logical conditions was demonstrated to inform on the viability of a project in terms of cost reduction in comparison to the business as usual scenario. These conditions were found to also be useful for determining the minimum scale, or the economic break-in scale, for a tidal stream turbine given a remote community. In this context, communities are found to be best described by the local price of diesel fuel as an easily accessible metric to represent the current cost of electricity, their electrical load scale, and the local tidal current resource. Ten British Columbian communities were selected to validate the results by comparing the set of conditions to a complete energy system modelling approach and four were found to reach savings of 10 % or more as compared to the business as usual scenario. The long-term objective of this work is to provide remote communities with an integrated, affordable, and turnkey solution for the displacement of diesel in their energy systems. The next steps in achieving this include augmented optimization tools to quantify and capture non-monetary value so that the modelling and multi-criteria decision-making steps of the design process can be bridged together. / Graduate

Durant cette thèse, nous avons exploré l'impact qu'engendre une modification de la gravitation sur les courants de marée. Nous avons effectuer les premières simulations N-corps de la formation d'un courant de marée galactique dans le paradigme MOND. Nous avons comparer les résultats ainsi obtenus aux prédictions du modèle standard de la cosmologie, ΛCMD, dans le but de trouver des différences entres-elles qui pourraient être observables. Nous avons remarqué que la brisure du principe d'équivalence fort engendrée une telle modification de la gravitation conduisait les amas globulaires à avoir une morphologie ovoïdale, contrairement à la dynamique Newtonienne où ceux-ci sont elliptiques. Cette morphologie des amas génère également une asymétrie de longueur et de nombre entre les deux bras d'un courant de marée similaire à celle observée récemment dans le courant de Palomar 5. / During this thesis, we explored the impact of a modification of the gravitation on the tidal streams. We made the first N-body simulations of the formation of a galactic tidal stream in the MOND paradigm. We compared the results obtained with the predictions of the standard model of the cosmology, ΛCMD, with the aim of finding differences between them that can be observed. We have noticed that the break of the strong equivalence principle generated by a such modification of the gravitation led to a lopsided morphology of the globular clusters, contrary to their elliptical shape in Newtonian dynamics. This morphology of the cluster also generates an asymmetry of length and of number between the two arms of a tidal stream similar to that observed recently in the Palomar 5 stream.

The predictive capabilities of blade-resolved unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) and detached eddy simulation (DES), the most commonly used hybrid RANS/large eddy simulation (LES) model, are assessed for hydrokinetic turbine performance and mean and turbulent flows in the intermediate-wake region, and results for a range of tip-speed ratio encompassing design and off-design conditions are analyzed to understand the wake recovery mechanism. The performance predictions compared within 5% of the experimental data. Both URANS and DES models performed reasonably well for the near wake predictions, where the errors were < 15%. DES outperformed URANS for both mean wake deficit and turbulence predictions in the intermediate-wake region and both quantities compared within 10% of the experiments. The improved prediction by DES is because of 1) its ability to predict the tip vortex breakdown, which plays a critical role in the wake recovery, especially for higher tip speed ratios; 2) the presence of the free-surface which created an upper bypass region of accelerated flow. The study reveals that the tip vortex breakdown mechanism depends on tip speed ratio. For lower values of tip speed ratio, instabilities generated in the root vortex core are identified to be the cause of breakdown. For higher values, the breakdown occurred because of the instabilities generated during the vortex filament entanglement. The presence of the free-surface led to an early vortex breakdown and the interaction between the wake and free-surface is initiated by the interaction of stanchion with the free-surface. Future work should focus on investigation of other hybrid RANS/LES models to address the limitations of the DES models, and extension of the study to include wave effects.

Yes / A two-dimensional model based on OpenTidalFarm is applied to simulate tidal stream flow around turbines. The model is governed by shallow water equations and is able to optimize the layout of the deployed turbine array in terms of maximizing the energy outputs. Three turbine array layouts including two structured layouts (regular and staggered) and one unstructured layout (optimized) are simulated to investigate the effect of turbine layouts on energy extraction. The present study shows that more energy could be extracted when lateral spacing decreases and longitudinal spacing increases within the same domain, namely the effective turbine layout is to deploy more turbines in the first row to extract energy from undisturbed tidal stream, while larger longitudinal spacing will make it possible for tidal stream to recover more before reaching the next turbines row. Taking the tidal stream turbines array around Zhoushan Islands as a case study, results show that the optimized layout can extract 106.8% energy of that extracted by the regular and staggered layout for a full tide in the same marine area. Additionally, the turbine array has a great influence on tidal stream velocities immediately behind the array and has little effect on far-field wake flow. / National Natural Science Foundation Council of China (51879098), and the Marine Renewable Energy Research Project of State Oceanic Administration (GHME2015GC01).

Blue crabs are a widely distributed estuarine species with broad economic and ecological importance. Several studies have linked blue crabs to freshwater inflows, but the precise nature of this link is still uncertain, as blue crabs have a complex life cycle that utilizes both marine and estuarine environments. One potential link between blue crabs and freshwater inflows is during recruitment, when megalopae developing offshore return to estuaries before molting into juvenile crabs. Megalopae swim during the flood tide to ensure delivery into and farther up estuaries. The behaviors regulating selective tidal stream transport (STST) on the flood tide were originally studied in North Carolina in an estuary with regular freshwater inflows and a strong salinity gradient. The model of STST was re-examined in the Mission-Aransas, an estuary with episodic freshwater inflows and salinity gradients ranging from normal estuarine conditions to hypersaline during droughts. The behavioral responses of megalopae to a range of rates of salinity increase were tested, and then modeled onto rates of salinity change observed in the field to determine the theoretical ecological consequences of STST for blue crab populations in the Mission-Aransas Estuary. To validate the ecological trends predicted by the behavioral model of STST, a simple, long-term data set reflecting changes in megalopae abundance is needed. Hog’s hair collectors are a simple and widely used method of quantifying abundance of brachyuran megalopae, including blue crabs. However, the efficiency of hog’s hair collectors in sampling for megalopae is unknown. Several studies have reported poor correlations between settlement on hog’s hair collectors, transport, and abundance of megalopae in the plankton due to disparate temporal scales and potentially turbulence-driven decoupling. Each of these issues were addressed in field and flume experiments, which were used to develop a model for interpreting settlement on hog’s hair collectors in terms of transport and planktonic abundance. / text