Abstract
During the recent period intensive research has focused on the advancement of engineering and technology aspects concerning the development and optimization of wave and current energy converters driven by the need to increase the percentage of marine renewable sources in the energy-production mix, particularly from offshore installations. Most stream energy-harvesting devices are based on hydro-turbines, and their performance is dependent on the ratio of the blade-tip speed to incident-flow speed. As the oncoming speed of natural-occurring currents varies randomly, there is a penalty for the latter device’s performance when operating at non-constant tip-speed ratio away from the design value. Unlike conventional turbines that are characterized by a single degree of freedom rotating around an axis, a novel concept is examined concerning hydrokinetic energy converters based on oscillating hydrofoils. The biomimetic device includes a rotating, vertically mounted, biomimetic wing, supported by an arm linked at a pivot point on the mid-chord. Activated by a controllable self-pitching motion the system performs angular oscillations around the vertical axis in incoming flow. In this work, the performance of the above flapping-foil, biomimetic flow energy harvester is investigated by application of a semi-3D model based on unsteady hydrofoil theory and the results are verified by comparison to experimental data and a 3D boundary element method based on vortex rings. By systematical application of the model the power extraction and efficiency of the system is presented for various cases including different geometric, mechanical, and kinematic parameters, and the optimal performance of the system is determined.