Abstract
Cavitation of megawatt tidal current turbines will lead to cavitation erosion and vibration damage of blades, which will affect turbine energy efficiency and safe operation. In this paper, the bionic structure of the leading-edge(LE) tubercles is introduced into the design of turbine blades, and the anti-cavitation performance and noise suppression effect of the bionic turbine are compared by numerical method and cavitation tunnel test. The results show that the initial cavitation number of the suction side of the bionic turbine blade increases, but the cavity is separated in the groove, and the volume and periodic evolution of the cavity are effectively inhibited. When the cavitation on the suction side of the blade is more intense, the LE tubercles can significantly inhibit the radiation noise induced by turbine cavitation. In addition, the cavitation noise is highly dependent on the change of cavitation morphology, and the LE tubercles influence the noise level by controlling the cavity distribution and periodic evolution characteristics.