Abstract
Tidal current energy is an important alternative energy resource among the various ocean energy resources available. The tidal currents in the South-Western sea of Korea can be utilized for the development of tidal current power generation. Tidal power generation can be beneficial for many fishing nurseries and nearby islands in the southwest region of Korea. Moreover, tidal power generation is necessary for promoting energy self-sufficient islands. As tidal currents are always available, power generation is predictable; thus, tidal power is a reliable renewable energy resource. The selection of an appropriate hydrofoil is important for designing a tidal current turbine. This study concentrates on the selection and numerical analysis of four different hydrofoils (MNU26, NACA63421, DU91_W2_250, and DU93_W_210LM). Blade element momentum theory is used for configuring the design of a 50 W class turbine rotor blade. The optimized blade geometry is used for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis with hexahedral numerical grids. Among the four blades, NACA63421 blade showed the maximum power coefficient of 0.45 at a tip speed ratio of 6. CFD analysis is used to investigate the power coefficient, pressure coefficient, and streamline distribution of a 50 W class horizontal axis tidal current turbine for different hydrofoils.