A study of tidal turbine array

• Main Author: Yong, Heng Wei.
• Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/54045
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In this globalisation world, there are ever-changing technologies happening around us all the times. When there are additional inventions and advancing technologies get into the world market, there will surely be an increasing demand of energy to run those equipments or gadgets. Due to the increase of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, primarily produced by the burning of natural resources such as oil and coal. Natural disasters and human activities are the main reasons that contribute to an increase in average global temperatures, resulting global warming around the world. Alternate renewable resources are explored for immediate effect, hence the development of renewable energy such as wind, water and biofuel technologies are moving fast. A High Precision Torque Sensor System is developed for the future research of the tidal turbine experiment. It is developed to measure the mechanical power extracted by model wind turbines. The torque sensor will be measured by mounting on a DC motor, fixing ball bearings to a housing hub. By doing so, it will prevent its rotation by the deflection of a strain-gauge-instrumented plate. This type of measurement is more accurate compared to measuring the electrical power generated by the DC motor. Since the electrical power are largely affected by the internal frictional, electric and magnetic losses. Last but not least, Calibration experiments are performed by using the dead weight method. Because this new torque sensor is introduced to contribute to the preciseness of the wind tunnel testing which might aid the flexibility in model studies of the power that can be generated from tidal turbines.