Decomposition and prediction of hydrodynamic loads on a floating counter-rotating tidal turbine under surge motion

In the actual marine environment, the hydrodynamic characteristics of floating counter-rotating tidal turbines (FCRTTs) are influenced by the motion responses of their carrier platforms. Therefore, accurately analyzing and predicting hydrodynamic loads under the motions of FCRTTs are crucial. In this paper, a fitting formula for hydrodynamic loads of FCRTTs applicable to rotational motion is derived. Then, the effects of surge amplitude, surge frequency, and tip speed ratio on the hydrodynamic loads of an FCRTT are also calculated. It is found that the instantaneous load fluctuation of the rear rotor is more severe than that of the front rotor. However, the average torque of both rotors is similar, which can effectively enhance the operational stability of the FCRTT. Additionally, the hydrodynamic loads are decomposed into average hydrodynamic force, damping force, and added mass force based on the least squares method. A fitting formula for the hydrodynamic loads applicable to different surge conditions is derived, incorporating 11 hydrodynamic coefficients. The results indicate that the damping coefficients nP0 and nT0 play a dominant role in the fluctuation amplitude of the hydrodynamic loads. Finally, an effective and fast prediction model for various hydrodynamic coefficients is successfully established using the three-dimensional radial basis function. The relative errors between the predicted peak values of all performance coefficients and the values calculated using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method are within −3.5%. This paper provides important guidance for engineering design and load prediction of FCRTTs. Moreover, the predictive methodology can be extended for application to other single-degree-of-freedom and couple motions.