A study of tidal turbine array - I

• Main Author: Zhang, Xiang
• Other Authors: School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/60223
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

A wind turbine is a rotating machine that converts kinetic energy into mechanical energy. It is one of the main source of renewable energy that has gained interested in the recent years due to the environmental concerns such as climate change and depletion of fossil fuels. It is also a major source of sustainable energy and can be harvested using both horizontal and vertical axis wind turbines. In order to fully utilize wind energy, research into the technology of wind turbines becomes necessary. An investigation into tidal turbine array and how they affect the power output of the turbines was carried out in this project. Vertical-axis wind turbines were used, and two different arrays were tested out. In configuration 1 two turbines were placed one after another, while in configuration 2 one turbine was placed in the middle behind two turbines. The results of these the power output in these two configurations are compared with the result with only a single turbine. In order to measure the power output, a torque sensor and a tachometer was use to measure the torque and the angular velocity of the turbine respectively. Results showed that configuration 1 increased the power output of the original turbine while configuration 2 resulted in a decrease in the power output. This experiment helped to improve understanding of how turbine power output is affected by the array they are placed in and will aid any future investigations into this area.