Computer modeling of wave-energy air turbines with the SUPG/PSPG formulation and discontinuity-capturing technique

We present a computational fluid mechanics technique for modeling of wave-energy air turbines, specifically the Wells turbine. In this type of energy conversion, the wave motion is converted to an oscillating airflow in a duct with the turbine. This is a self-rectifying turbine in the sense that it maintains the same direction of rotation as the airflow changes direction. The blades of the turbine are symmetrical, and here we consider straight and swept blades, both with constant chord. The turbulent flow physics involved in the complex, unsteady flow is governed by nonequilibrium behavior, and we use a stabilized formulation to address the related challenges in the context of RANS modeling. The formulation is based on the streamline-upwind/Petrov-Galerkin and pressure-stabilizing/Petrov-Galerkin methods, supplemented with the DRDJ stabilization. Judicious determination of the stabilization parameters involved is also a part of our computational technique and is described for each component of the stabilized formulation. We compare the numerical performance of the formulation with and without the DRDJ stabilization and present the computational results obtained for the two blade configurations with realistic airflow data.