Shrouded Tidal Stream Turbine Simulation Model Development and Experimental Validation

This paper presents the modeling steps of a shrouded tidal stream turbine. The main goal of this modeling is to allow the behavior simulation of the converter in order to anticipate its operation under specific conditions and its later development. The observation time scale of the operation system may extend from tidal period (several hours) to converter switching period (milliseconds to microseconds). An assessment of different modeling methodology, based on instantaneous and average models, is carried out. Instantaneous modeling offers the possibility to observe system electrical dynamics, which are driven by power switches, at the expense of an important computational time. In that respect, an average modeling is considered for greater period-scale analyses. So as to reduce the computational time induced by the power electronic modeling, cosimulations between Simulink and PSIM are also established. Simulation results are furthermore compared with some experimental data of an industrial shrouded tidal stream turbine prototype immersed and tested in real off-grid condition. The results and differences observed are sufficiently relevant to consider these models as references for further development.