Impact of boundary proximity on cross-flow turbine performance*

Cross-flow turbines convert the kinetic power in wind and water currents to useful mechanical power. When individual cross-flow turbines or arrays of devices are deployed in real-world flows, some may be installed close to physical boundaries – for example, near the side of a building in an urban location, or next to the rocky wall of a tidal channel. Consequently, the turbine's blades will spend a portion of the rotation in close proximity to these boundaries, experiencing asymmetric confinement. Here, we experimentally investigate how the performance of a laboratory-scale cross-flow turbine changes with varying proximity to lateral boundaries.