Calculation method of fluid and structure interaction in a vertical-axis tidal current turbine

Based on ANSYS and CFX software, the calculation method of fluid and structure interaction in a vertical-axis tidal current turbine (VATC) was presented. 2-D CFX fluid calculation results were taken as loads exerted on the water turbine, the correponding stresses at nodes between fluid and structure were exerted on the FE model of the structure, then the strain calculation of the main shaft of the water turbine was completed. By comparison, the numerical calculation results were coincided well with the test ones. Therefore, it was shown that the proposed numerical calculation method is an effective method to transfer the fluid computing results to the structural analysis, and can forecast the trend of the structure response under the small deformation of the blades of the turbine, it is effective to compute and to check the structural strength of a VATC turbine.