Development of cost effective power take off system for marine energy applications
Summary:
The project aims to the development of a wave power take off system for marine energy applications. The system will have significantly improved reliability and efficiency of around 33% and with a reduction of 25% in Operation and Maintenance costs, compared with currently available solutions. The project concerns the investigation, design, optimization and testing of a closed circuit water hydraulic system of elastomeric materials, which will contain a hydroturbine with adaptive blades of optimum design, a system of membrane pumps with passive valves and a pressure hydrophore, as well as an electronic control system.
Objective and main achievements:
The research team of the NTUA will develop the design, fabrication and laboratory testing a small scale prototype model of the hydroturbine runner. The main objectives which have been achieved in this project work are:
- Numerical modeling of the flow in the turbine and numerical optimization of rotor design to maximize energy efficiency and extend the operating range
- Parametric investigation of the effect of additional operating parameters such as the rotational speed
- Investigation of the effect of the design of wicket gate and spiral casing of the turbine
- Mechanical design and manufacture of the improved rotor design prototype
- Installation in a properly modified test rig of the LHT, performance of detailed measurements and confirmation of the predicted behavior
The installation of this turbine in the wave energy recovery system is estimated to improve its power take off efficiency by 5 percentage points.
