IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v239y2025ics0960148124020457.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

In-situ blade strain measurements and fatigue analysis of a cross-flow turbine operating in a tidal flow

Author

Listed:
  • Bichanich, Mason
  • Bharath, Aidan
  • O’Byrne, Patrick
  • Monahan, Michael
  • Ross, Hannah
  • Raye, Robert
  • Nichols, Casey
  • Candon, Charles
  • Wosnik, Martin

Abstract

Cross-flow turbines (CFTs) are inherently unsteady devices with regards to operating principle and loading. By improving our understanding of the dynamic loading on these turbines, we hope to better inform CFT design, improve survivability, and reduce overall costs. The University of New Hampshire (UNH) and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) collaborated on a project to instrument and test a four-bladed New Energy Corp. vertical axis cross-flow turbine in a real tidal flow. One blade from the 3.2 m diameter x 1.7 m height turbine was instrumented with eight full-bridge strain gauges along the span of the blade. The turbine was then deployed at the UNH-Atlantic Marine Energy Center (AMEC) Tidal Energy Test Site in Portsmouth, NH. Time-synchronized measurements of blade strain, inflow, thrust, rotational speed, and electrical output were obtained to characterize blade loading under various conditions. The blade strain was examined to assess the dynamic loading and conduct a fatigue analysis on the device.

Suggested Citation

  • Bichanich, Mason & Bharath, Aidan & O’Byrne, Patrick & Monahan, Michael & Ross, Hannah & Raye, Robert & Nichols, Casey & Candon, Charles & Wosnik, Martin, 2025. "In-situ blade strain measurements and fatigue analysis of a cross-flow turbine operating in a tidal flow," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:239:y:2025:i:c:s0960148124020457
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2024.121977
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148124020457
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2024.121977?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Murray, Robynne E. & Ordonez-Sanchez, Stephanie & Porter, Kate E. & Doman, Darrel A. & Pegg, Michael J. & Johnstone, Cameron M., 2018. "Towing tank testing of passively adaptive composite tidal turbine blades and comparison to design tool," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 116(PA), pages 202-214.
    2. Bachant, Peter & Wosnik, Martin, 2015. "Performance measurements of cylindrical- and spherical-helical cross-flow marine hydrokinetic turbines, with estimates of exergy efficiency," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 318-325.
    3. Magnus Harrold & Pablo Ouro, 2019. "Rotor Loading Characteristics of a Full-Scale Tidal Turbine," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-19, March.
    4. Peter Bachant & Martin Wosnik, 2016. "Effects of Reynolds Number on the Energy Conversion and Near-Wake Dynamics of a High Solidity Vertical-Axis Cross-Flow Turbine," Energies, MDPI, vol. 9(2), pages 1-18, January.
    5. Marone, Nicole & Barrington, Matthew & Gunawan, Budi & McEntee, Jarlath & Wosnik, Martin, 2025. "Performance of cross-flow turbines with varying blade materials and unsupported blade span," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    6. Lake, Thomas & Hughes, Jack & Togneri, Michael & Williams, Alison J. & Jeffcoate, Penny & Starzmann, Ralf & Kaufmann, Nicholas & Masters, Ian, 2021. "Strain gauge measurements on a full scale tidal turbine blade," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 985-996.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marone, Nicole & Barrington, Matthew & Gunawan, Budi & McEntee, Jarlath & Wosnik, Martin, 2025. "Performance of cross-flow turbines with varying blade materials and unsupported blade span," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(C).
    2. Jiyong Lee & Mirko Musa & Chris Feist & Jinjin Gao & Lian Shen & Michele Guala, 2019. "Wake Characteristics and Power Performance of a Drag-Driven in-Bank Vertical Axis Hydrokinetic Turbine," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-20, September.
    3. Ouro, Pablo & Runge, Stefan & Luo, Qianyu & Stoesser, Thorsten, 2019. "Three-dimensionality of the wake recovery behind a vertical axis turbine," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 1066-1077.
    4. Robynne E. Murray & Andrew Simms & Aidan Bharath & Ryan Beach & Mark Murphy & Levi Kilcher & Andy Scholbrock, 2023. "Toward the Instrumentation and Data Acquisition of a Tidal Turbine in Real Site Conditions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-14, January.
    5. Zhen Qin & Xiaoran Tang & Yu-Ting Wu & Sung-Ki Lyu, 2022. "Advancement of Tidal Current Generation Technology in Recent Years: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-18, October.
    6. Musa, Mirko & Hill, Craig & Guala, Michele, 2019. "Interaction between hydrokinetic turbine wakes and sediment dynamics: array performance and geomorphic effects under different siting strategies and sediment transport conditions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 738-753.
    7. Ross, Hannah & Polagye, Brian, 2020. "An experimental assessment of analytical blockage corrections for turbines," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 1328-1341.
    8. Reddy, K. Bheemalingeswara & Bhosale, Amit C., 2024. "Effect of number of blades on performance and wake recovery for a vertical axis helical hydrokinetic turbine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 299(C).
    9. Moreau, Martin & Germain, Grégory & Maurice, Guillaume, 2023. "Experimental performance and wake study of a ducted twin vertical axis turbine in ebb and flood tide currents at a 1/20th scale," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 214(C), pages 318-333.
    10. Kumar, Rakesh & Nag, Aditya Kumar & Sarkar, Shibayan, 2024. "Performance analysis of spherically curbed hydrokinetic turbine arranged in ln-line array in a closed conduit," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 232(C).
    11. Okulov, V.L. & Naumov, I.V. & Kabardin, I.K. & Litvinov, I.V. & Markovich, D.M. & Mikkelsen, R.F. & Sørensen, J.N. & Alekseenko, S.V. & Wood, D.H., 2021. "Experiments on line arrays of horizontal-axis hydroturbines," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 15-21.
    12. Ali M. H. A. Khajah & Simon P. Philbin, 2022. "Techno-Economic Analysis and Modelling of the Feasibility of Wind Energy in Kuwait," Clean Technol., MDPI, vol. 4(1), pages 1-21, January.
    13. Ma, Ning & Lei, Hang & Han, Zhaolong & Zhou, Dai & Bao, Yan & Zhang, Kai & Zhou, Lei & Chen, Caiyong, 2018. "Airfoil optimization to improve power performance of a high-solidity vertical axis wind turbine at a moderate tip speed ratio," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 236-252.
    14. Hunt, Aidan & Strom, Benjamin & Talpey, Gregory & Ross, Hannah & Scherl, Isabel & Brunton, Steven & Wosnik, Martin & Polagye, Brian, 2024. "An experimental evaluation of the interplay between geometry and scale on cross-flow turbine performance," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    15. Xu, You-Lin & Peng, Yi-Xin & Zhan, Sheng, 2019. "Optimal blade pitch function and control device for high-solidity straight-bladed vertical axis wind turbines," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C), pages 1613-1625.
    16. Villeneuve, Thierry & Boudreau, Matthieu & Dumas, Guy, 2020. "Improving the efficiency and the wake recovery rate of vertical-axis turbines using detached end-plates," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 31-45.
    17. Derya Karakaya & Aslı Bor & Sebnem Elçi, 2024. "Numerical Analysis of Three Vertical Axis Turbine Designs for Improved Water Energy Efficiency," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-24, March.
    18. Bakhshandeh Rostami, Ali & Fernandes, Antonio Carlos, 2015. "The effect of inertia and flap on autorotation applied for hydrokinetic energy harvesting," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 312-323.
    19. Kumar, Rakesh & Sarkar, Shibayan, 2025. "Performance evaluation of modified hydrokinetic turbines in pipe flow with velocity correction technique," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    20. Zhang, Aiming & Liu, Sen & Ma, Yong & Hu, Chao & Li, Zhengyu, 2022. "Field tests on model efficiency of twin vertical axis helical hydrokinetic turbines," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:239:y:2025:i:c:s0960148124020457. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.