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The thesis describes a programme of velocity measurement within the flow field of a horizontal axis tidal turbine model by particle image velocimetry (PIV). These measurements were analysed to aid the understanding of near wake processes and to provide data of high quality and resolution for the validation of numerical models which represented a second area of the research. The commercial package Ansys-CFX was used for the systematic development of Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes computational fluid dynamics (RANS-CFD) models which replicated each of the experimental cases. These models were systematically verified and validated in light of the experimental measurements. Aside from local areas of discrepancy, the experimental measurements were largely well predicted by the models. This has resulted in a modelling methodology which could be applied with increased confidence to investigate the wake of larger scale turbines, thus providing an alternative to expensive, difficult and sometimes dangerous field experiments |
