Prediction of acoustic field induced by a tidal turbine under straight or oblique inflow via a BEM/FW-H approach

This study investigates the influence of loading and inflow conditions on tidal turbine performance from a hydrodynamic and hydroacoustic point of view. A boundary element method is utilized for the former to investigate turbine performance at various loading conditions under zero/non-zero yaw inflow. The boundary element method is selected as it has been selected, tested, and validated to be computationally efficient and accurate for marine hydrodynamic problems. Once the hydrodynamic solutions are obtained, such as the time-dependent surface pressures and periodic motion of the turbine blade, they are taken as the known noise sources for the subsequence hydroacoustic analysis based on the Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings formulation given in a form proposed by Farassat. This formulation is coupled with the boundary element method to fully consider the three-dimensional shape of the turbine and the speed of sound in the acoustic analysis. For validations, a model turbine is taken from a reference paper, and the comparison between numerical predictions and experimental data reveals satisfactory agreement in hydrodynamic performance. Importantly, this study shows that the noise patterns and sound pressure levels at both the near- and far-field are affected by different loading conditions and sensitive to the inclination imposed in the incoming flow.