Orbital Marine Power Find Great Benefits in Selkie GAD-CFD Tool

Selkie were enthralled to learn that Orbital Marine Power, a Selkie network member and developer of the world’s most powerful tidal turbine, have used the Selkie open-source GAD-CFD tool to inform the understanding of the tidal flow and potential wake interactions as part of their on going research and development.

In March last year Selkie hosted a Computational Fluid Dynamics Workshop details of which are here, which was intended to inform the design and development of the tool.  It was attended by relevant industry stakeholders, such as the likes of some of Orbital’s engineers, who were able to input directly into the the tool’s capabilities and practicalities.

Since the the workshop, Selkie are delighted to share the following testimonial from Lindsey Amos, Loads & Control Engineer, regarding the use of the GAD- CFD tool.

“In partnership with the University of Swansea and Selkie team, Orbital have utilised the Selkie CFD tool within R&D looking into wakes and array effects. The Selkie GAD-CFD model has been configured for a region of interest at the Morlais site, and preliminary studies have helped inform the understanding of the tidal flow and potential wake interactions with the addition of various combinations of rotor locations.

The tool has been useful in highlighting some of the key features for Orbital to consider at the Morlais site, and moreover feeds into a broader package of study into this complex topic of wakes and array interactions in tidal energy, particularly for Orbital’s novel floating dual-rotor tidal technology. The fact that other sites can also be modelled with relative ease allows further comparisons to be made.

Within such a cutting-edge field, there are great benefits to open-access tools such as the Selkie CFD tool. Transparency and understanding of how the tool works helps engineers make informed analyses of results. Within this particular research area there is a need to validate and compare tools, so being open-access means a broad picture can be achieved. Moreover, tools that mature from collaboration between academic and industrial partners have the scope to incorporate state-of-the-art research into a practical package, which would be of benefit to Orbital and the tidal energy sector as a whole.”

The GAD-CFD tool is a valuable tool for any developer or research organisation seeking  a better interpretation of flow dynamics in the upstream and downstream areas of  turbines and their arrays. Please click here for a video tutorial on how to access and use the tool.