TEAMER: Water Tunnel Data from Testing the Pterofin Skimmer Concept

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Pterofin's Skimmer concept relies on a flapping and pitching hydrofoil to extract hydrokinetic energy from water flows. The concept aims to utilize unsteady fluid dynamics phenomena (added mass, shed vorticity, and unsteady boundary layer development) to achieve higher lift coefficients, enabling increased power density of the hydrokinetic device and a fundamental shift in the rpm/torque scaling of the power take off compared with turbines.

The Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State, in collaboration with Pterofin, designed and built a proof-of-concept flapping/pitching mechanism which was subsequently tested in ARL's 12-inch water tunnel facility. The mechanical power supplied to or extracted from the mechanism was measured for a range of hydrofoils provided by Pterofin over operating conditions including reduced frequency, Reynolds number, and the ratio between pitching and flapping amplitudes. The power lost to friction in the mechanism was removed from the net power measurement by means of a bare hub tare, with the resultant hydrodynamic power being used to calculate a mechanism-independent and non-dimensional power coefficient.

The product of this effort is a dataset describing the power coefficient of a hydrofoil having simultaneous pitching and flapping motions, both of which are approximately sinusoidal. Power coefficients were collected for a range of primary design variables including:
- Reduced frequency: 0.01 to 0.95
- Pitching/flapping peak angle ratio: 1.5 to 3.0
- Chord-based Reynolds number: 60,000 to 560,000

Secondary design variables relating to the hydrofoil geometry were explored including:
- Aspect ratio
- Planform shape
- Section thickness distribution
- Hydrofoil position relative to the pitching axis
- Hydrofoil sweep angle relative to the pitching axis

Measured data are provided in mean and time series formats. MATLAB scripts are provided which can be used to generate figures of time-averaged and phase-averaged hydrodynamic power coefficients calculated from the measured data. A complete description of the experiment and data reduction can be found in the Post Access Report for the Pterofin Skimmer test effort which will be available on the TEAMER website.

This work was supported by the Pacific Energy Ocean Trust via a TEAMER award.

Citation Formats

Pennsylvania State University, Applied Research Laboratory. (2023). TEAMER: Water Tunnel Data from Testing the Pterofin Skimmer Concept [data set]. Retrieved from https://dx.doi.org/10.15473/2282051.
Export Citation to RIS
Jaffa, Nicholas, Walsh, Justin, Pique, Alexander, Bechtel, Jonathan, and Durachko, Timothy. TEAMER: Water Tunnel Data from Testing the Pterofin Skimmer Concept. United States: N.p., 13 Jul, 2023. Web. doi: 10.15473/2282051.
Jaffa, Nicholas, Walsh, Justin, Pique, Alexander, Bechtel, Jonathan, & Durachko, Timothy. TEAMER: Water Tunnel Data from Testing the Pterofin Skimmer Concept. United States. https://dx.doi.org/10.15473/2282051
Jaffa, Nicholas, Walsh, Justin, Pique, Alexander, Bechtel, Jonathan, and Durachko, Timothy. 2023. "TEAMER: Water Tunnel Data from Testing the Pterofin Skimmer Concept". United States. https://dx.doi.org/10.15473/2282051. https://mhkdr.openei.org/submissions/517.
@div{oedi_517, title = {TEAMER: Water Tunnel Data from Testing the Pterofin Skimmer Concept}, author = {Jaffa, Nicholas, Walsh, Justin, Pique, Alexander, Bechtel, Jonathan, and Durachko, Timothy.}, abstractNote = {Pterofin's Skimmer concept relies on a flapping and pitching hydrofoil to extract hydrokinetic energy from water flows. The concept aims to utilize unsteady fluid dynamics phenomena (added mass, shed vorticity, and unsteady boundary layer development) to achieve higher lift coefficients, enabling increased power density of the hydrokinetic device and a fundamental shift in the rpm/torque scaling of the power take off compared with turbines.

The Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State, in collaboration with Pterofin, designed and built a proof-of-concept flapping/pitching mechanism which was subsequently tested in ARL's 12-inch water tunnel facility. The mechanical power supplied to or extracted from the mechanism was measured for a range of hydrofoils provided by Pterofin over operating conditions including reduced frequency, Reynolds number, and the ratio between pitching and flapping amplitudes. The power lost to friction in the mechanism was removed from the net power measurement by means of a bare hub tare, with the resultant hydrodynamic power being used to calculate a mechanism-independent and non-dimensional power coefficient.

The product of this effort is a dataset describing the power coefficient of a hydrofoil having simultaneous pitching and flapping motions, both of which are approximately sinusoidal. Power coefficients were collected for a range of primary design variables including:
- Reduced frequency: 0.01 to 0.95
- Pitching/flapping peak angle ratio: 1.5 to 3.0
- Chord-based Reynolds number: 60,000 to 560,000

Secondary design variables relating to the hydrofoil geometry were explored including:
- Aspect ratio
- Planform shape
- Section thickness distribution
- Hydrofoil position relative to the pitching axis
- Hydrofoil sweep angle relative to the pitching axis

Measured data are provided in mean and time series formats. MATLAB scripts are provided which can be used to generate figures of time-averaged and phase-averaged hydrodynamic power coefficients calculated from the measured data. A complete description of the experiment and data reduction can be found in the Post Access Report for the Pterofin Skimmer test effort which will be available on the TEAMER website.

This work was supported by the Pacific Energy Ocean Trust via a TEAMER award.}, doi = {10.15473/2282051}, url = {https://mhkdr.openei.org/submissions/517}, journal = {}, number = , volume = , place = {United States}, year = {2023}, month = {07}}
https://dx.doi.org/10.15473/2282051

Details

Data from Jul 13, 2023

Last updated Feb 14, 2024

Submitted Dec 20, 2023

Organization

Pennsylvania State University, Applied Research Laboratory

Contact

Justin Walsh

814.865.3032

Authors

Nicholas Jaffa

Pennsylvania State University Applied Research Laboratory

Justin Walsh

Pennsylvania State University Applied Research Laboratory

Alexander Pique

Pennsylvania State University Applied Research Laboratory

Jonathan Bechtel

Pennsylvania State University Applied Research Laboratory

Timothy Durachko

Pennsylvania State University Applied Research Laboratory

DOE Project Details

Project Name Testing Expertise and Access for Marine Energy Research

Project Lead Lauren Ruedy

Project Number EE0008895

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