Experimental validation of a linear momentum and bluff-body model for high-blockage cross-flow turbine arrays

The performance and near-wake characteristics of a turbine in a confined flow depend on the blockage ratio, defined as the ratio of the turbine's projected area to the channel cross-sectional area. While blockage is understood to increase the power coefficient for turbine \"fences\" spanning a channel, most investigations at the upper range of practically-achievable blockage ratios have been theoretical or numerical in nature. Furthermore, while linear momentum actuator disk theory is frequently used to model turbines in confined flows, as confinement increases, the ability of this idealized model to describe performance and flow fields has not been established. In this work, the performance and near-wake flow field of a pair of cross-flow turbines are experimentally evaluated at blockage ratios from 30% to 55%. The fluid velocity measured in the bypass region is found to be well-predicted by the open-channel linear momentum model developed by Houlsby et al. (2008), while the wake velocit..., This data was collected in the Alice C. Tyler flume at the University of Washington using a laboratory-scale two-turbine array. Further details of the physical system and data acquisition for performance and PIV may be found in our manuscript., , # Data from: Experimental validation of a linear momentum and bluff-body model for high-blockage cross-flow turbine arrays

Dataset: [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.dfn2z35b5](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.dfn2z35b5)

Supporting Article (*Physical Review Fluids*): [https://doi.org/10.1103/tpzz-df14](https://doi.org/10.1103/tpzz-df14)
Supporting Article (Open-Access on arXiv): [https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2408.16705](https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2408.16705)

This dataset provides performance data and near-wake flow field data for a cross-flow turbine array tested at high blockage at the University of Washington. The array's hydrodynamic performance (e.g., power and thrust coefficients) was collected at blockage ratios between 30% and 55% using a custom laboratory-scale turbine test rig in the Alice C. Tyler flume at the University of Washington, and the near-wake flow field for a subset of conditions was characterized using particle image velocimetry (PIV). The experimental methods a...,