Development of blade for floating type current turbine system

The KUROSHIO is one of the ocean currents flowing stably near the coast of Japan throughout the year, and power generation technology using this ocean current energy is now attracting attention in Japan due to its potential as a clean and stable energy source. Slow current velocity and deep water depth are technical challenges of the current turbine system in the KUROSHIO Current. The authors have been engaged in the research and development of a floating type current turbine system moored on the seabed and floating on the sea. This system consists of large twin-turbines and simple mooring for deep-sea deployment as shown in Fig. 1, and it is expected to operate with a high capacity factor. This paper discussed about the turbine output characteristics by turbine blades which were confirmed through CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) analysis, towing tank test and the impact of turbine blade deformation which was measured by towing tank test, obliquely inflow and cross-beam.