Fluid-structure interaction based optimisation in tidal turbines: A perspective review

Abstract

Occurrences such as the global climate change have presented critical challenges to humanity and necessitated studies into how greenhouse gas emissions can be minimized. One practical solution is the generation of power from renewable and sustainable sources; hence, tidal current energy which, however, also gives rise to the concept of fluid-structure interaction (FSI). The pressure and fluid flow aspects affect the structural deformations and the structural deformations in turn affect pressure and flow. This paper presents a perspective review of FSI based optimisation in tidal turbines with a focus on low-order aerodynamic, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and structural modeling. It was acknowledged that, to aid humanity amidst the issue of using renewable or non-renewable sources of energy, practical solutions such as generating renewable energy from sustainable sources are effective. Tidal current energy was found to be one of the most reliable solutions but further studies regarding its practicality was advised.