Case Study: Orbital Marine Power optimizes tidal turbine design with SimScale

Orbital Marine Power optimized a floating tidal stream turbine with SimScale

Orbital Marine Power, a leader in floating tidal stream turbines, needed to improve the hydrodynamic performance of its turbine leg and nacelle while also assessing maintenance access in harsh tidal conditions. To do this, the company turned to SimScale’s cloud-based CAE platform, using CFD and multiphase simulations to model flow behavior, drag, lift, and free-surface effects.

With SimScale, Orbital Marine Power was able to run simulations quickly, share results across offices, and avoid costly desktop software and scale-model testing. The team confirmed drag and lift coefficients, tracked wake and velocity deficits, and used the findings to optimize the design while saving several months of development time and over £10,000, with some iterations completed in under an hour instead of 1–2 months.

Orbital Marine Power

Mark Byers

Hydrodynamics Engineer