TEAMER: Water Tunnel Data from Testing the Pterofin Skimmer Concept
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
TY - DATA
AB - 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.
AU - Jaffa, Nicholas
A2 - Walsh, Justin
A3 - Pique, Alexander
A4 - Bechtel, Jonathan
A5 - Durachko, Timothy
DB - Marine and Hydrokinetic Data Repository
DP - Open EI | National Renewable Energy Laboratory
DO - 10.15473/2282051
KW - marine
KW - energy
KW - TEAMER
KW - flapping
KW - pitching
KW - reduced frequency
KW - hydrofoil
KW - pterofin
KW - skimmer
KW - unsteady
KW - water tunnel
KW - turbine
KW - hydrokinetic
KW - MATLAB
KW - CFD
KW - oscillating hydrofoil
KW - CEC
KW - current enery converter
KW - technology
KW - proof of concept
KW - code
KW - software package
KW - unsteady fluid dynamics
KW - RFTS3
LA - English
DA - 2023/07/13
PY - 2023
PB - Pennsylvania State University, Applied Research Laboratory
T1 - TEAMER: Water Tunnel Data from Testing the Pterofin Skimmer Concept
UR - https://doi.org/10.15473/2282051
ER -
Jaffa, Nicholas, et al. TEAMER: Water Tunnel Data from Testing the Pterofin Skimmer Concept. Pennsylvania State University, Applied Research Laboratory, 13 July, 2023, Marine and Hydrokinetic Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.15473/2282051.
Jaffa, N., Walsh, J., Pique, A., Bechtel, J., & Durachko, T. (2023). TEAMER: Water Tunnel Data from Testing the Pterofin Skimmer Concept. [Data set]. Marine and Hydrokinetic Data Repository. Pennsylvania State University, Applied Research Laboratory. https://doi.org/10.15473/2282051
Jaffa, Nicholas, Justin Walsh, Alexander Pique, Jonathan Bechtel, and Timothy Durachko. TEAMER: Water Tunnel Data from Testing the Pterofin Skimmer Concept. Pennsylvania State University, Applied Research Laboratory, July, 13, 2023. Distributed by Marine and Hydrokinetic Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.15473/2282051
@misc{MHKDR_Dataset_517,
title = {TEAMER: Water Tunnel Data from Testing the Pterofin Skimmer Concept},
author = {Jaffa, Nicholas and Walsh, Justin and Pique, Alexander and 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.},
url = {https://mhkdr.openei.org/submissions/517},
year = {2023},
howpublished = {Marine and Hydrokinetic Data Repository, Pennsylvania State University, Applied Research Laboratory, https://doi.org/10.15473/2282051},
note = {Accessed: 2025-04-24},
doi = {10.15473/2282051}
}
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
Keywords
marine, energy, TEAMER, flapping, pitching, reduced frequency, hydrofoil, pterofin, skimmer, unsteady, water tunnel, turbine, hydrokinetic, MATLAB, CFD, oscillating hydrofoil, CEC, current enery converter, technology, proof of concept, code, software package, unsteady fluid dynamics, RFTS3DOE Project Details
Project Name Testing Expertise and Access for Marine Energy Research
Project Lead Lauren Ruedy
Project Number EE0008895