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A free-surface and blockage correction for tidal turbines

This article develops a theoretical analysis of effects of free surface and seabed on the flow field around tidal stream turbines modelled using actuator disc theory. We advocate the incorporation a blockage correction for axial induction to model these effects that can be incorporated in state-of-the-art blade element momentum codes for wind turbines. The predictions agree very well with experimental results for low tip-speed ratios. This has resulted in a grant from the Environmental Services Association Education Trust for support a PhD student to undertake research on the experimental and computational design and analysis of self-starting vertical axis wind turbines.