Study on an accelerated diffuser of tidal current power generation

In order to prolong the working time of turbines during one cycle of tidal current, and obtain more power of generation for a turbine which generates power by making use of tidal current energy, a new kind of accelerated diffuser for a horizontal tidal current turbine was designed. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method was used to calculate performance of this diffuser, and an experiment was carried out to validate simulation results. A comparison between simulation results and experimental results shows that the accelerated diffuser can reduce the self-starting speed of the turbine and significantly increase the power obtained. The research on a accelerated diffuser of tidal current power generation provides a way to compensate for energy shortage. It is also significant for cutting back on environmental pollution.