Modelling marine turbine arrays in tidal flows

Tidal stream turbines operate in the harsh marine environment, subjected to turbulence, wave action and wakes from upstream devices when deployed arrays. Turbines may be mounted on sea bed or floating platforms. Numerical models are invaluable study individual array performance their interaction with environmental flows. To date, shallow water three-dimensional Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) simulations predominate simulation of turbine arrays, while large-eddy (LES) is becoming more widely used due availability high-performance computing resources. The accuracy load prediction depends ability represent turbulence tidal flow unsteady wake effects. Inclusion waves increases modelling complexity particularly significant for In this Vision Paper, we provide a perspective numerical approaches currently flows turbines, suggesting future challenges envisaged field.