Abstract
Marine current power is a kind of renewable energy that has attracted increasing attention because of its abundant reserves, high predictability, and consistency. A marine current turbine is a large rotating device that converts the kinetic energy of the marine current into mechanical energy. As a straight-bladed vertical axis marine current turbine (VAMCT) has a square or rectangular cross-section, it can thus have a larger swept area than that of horizontal axis marine current turbines (HAMCT) for a given diameter, and also have good adaptability in shallow water where the turbine size is limited by both width and depth of a channel. However, the low energy utilization efficiency of the VAMCT is the main bottleneck that restricts its application. In this paper, two-dimensional numerical simulations were performed to investigate the effectiveness of an upstream deflector on improving performance of the straight-bladed (H-type) marine current turbine. The effects of various key geometrical parameters of the deflector including position, length, and installation angle on the hydrodynamic characteristics of the VAMCT were then systematically analyzed in order to explore the mechanism underlying the interaction between the deflector and rotor of a VAMCT. As a result, the optimal combination of geometrical parameters of the deflector by which the maximum energy utilization efficiency was achieved was a 13.37% increment compared to that of the original VAMCT. The results of this work show the feasibility of the deflector as a potential choice for improving the energy harvesting performance of a VAMCT with simple structure and easy implementation.