Publication

High cycle dynamic testing of marine hydrokinetic blades

Glennon, Conor
; 
Finnegan, William
; 
Meier, Patrick
; 
Jiang, Yadong
; 
Goggins, Jamie
Thumbnail Image
Files
Thumbnail Image
glennon_high_2022.pdf
Adobe PDF, 1.06 MB
Identifiers
https://hdl.handle.net/10379/18679
 https://doi.org/10.13025/29473
Publication Date
2022-08-25
Keywords
CERI/ITRN 2022, marine energy, renewable energy
Type
conference paper
Downloads
Show all metadata
Citation
Glennon, Conor, Finnegan, William, Meier, Patrick, Jiang, Yadong, & Goggins, Jamie (2022). High cycle dynamic testing of marine hydrokinetic blades. Paper presented at the Civil Engineering Research in Ireland (CERI 2022), Dublin, 25-26 August.
Abstract
River and tidal current energy can play a substantial role in the de-carbonisation of Europe’s electricity production. In recent years several companies have been developing technology to harness the power of the world’s waterways. One such developer is the Ocean Renewable Power Company (ORPC) who have developed a range of marine hydrokinetic devices to provide reliable electricity to remote communities who are normally dependent on local diesel-powered electricity generation. The latest generation of ORPC devices use high efficiency carbon fibre reinforced epoxy foils to extract energy from flows with diurnal variations in flow speed, subjecting the device to a wide envelope of blade loading. Technology to harness water current energy is still at a relatively early stage of development, hence de-risking of components plays a vital role on the road to commercialisation. In this study, planned testing of a demonstrator foil from the ORPC device in a novel dynamic loading setup is presented where the load will be generated by the rotation of an offset mass by an electric motor fixed to the blade. Such a test setup will allow for efficient testing up to very high cycle numbers not normally achieved in classic hydraulically actuated testing. Dynamic modelling of the blade response will be used to help predict the natural frequencies and relate the frequency of rotation to the load response in the blade. Data generated from the testing will contribute to the modelling and validation of future tidal blades, as well as the overall goal of electricity de-carbonisation.
Funder
Horizon 2020
Science Foundation Ireland
MaREI Research Centre
Publisher
Civil Engineering Research Association of Ireland
Publisher DOI
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
cbn
Collections
Civil Engineering (Conference Papers)