The Background
A New York based Marine Energy Company, Verdant Power, has been developing Hydro-kinetic Underwater Turbines. These particular Turbines are tidal turbines that are “Free yawing” and are able to orientate themselves with the Ebb and Flow tides to produce energy from the Tidal currents. The companies Generation 4 test turbine required a structurally robust Rotor hub that was capable of being relatively easy to install with standard Equipment and tools.
The Engineering
- Familiarize and decipher Engineering Tidal data and project Rotor Loads
- Perform Structural Finite Element Analysis
- Identify key locations for Strain data extraction
- Bolt and Preload analysis for Rotor to Blade interfaces
- Prepare manufacture ready Documentation and Drawings
- Supervised manufacture and Assembly
- Witness deployment and Testing Success
The Results
The Generation 4 Turbine was deployed in the East River of Manhattan and performed flawlessly throughout its testing phase. All data retrieved from the test was targeted at the optimization of the Generation 5 Turbine.
