Tidal Turbine Blade-Element Momentum Theory (2D)

This 2D companion to the 3D tidal-turbine simulator drives the same real torque-balance rotor — hydrodynamic torque spinning it up against a generator's resistive load — but computes that torque a completely different way. Instead of reading power off the 3D sim's fitted Cp(λ,θ) curve, it solves blade-element momentum theory annulus by annulus: fourteen rings across the rotor each iterate their own axial and tangential induction factors against a stall-limited airfoil polar and a Prandtl tip-loss correction, and the resulting torque contributions are summed to get the rotor's real hydrodynamic torque at every instant. A side-view streamtube shows the flow physically slowing and expanding through the disk exactly as much as each ring's own induction factor demands, a front view shades every ring by how hard it is working, and an independent live sweep of the same solver across tip-speed ratios draws the rotor's whole C_p(λ) curve so you can watch the running rotor's converged operating point land right on it.