We joined the 15th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference (EWTEC) in Bilbao during 3rd-7th September. Here we presented a poster and paper on our work, to build and benchmark a turbine test-bed, for use in the HVL MarinLab. This turbine will be central to WP4 on the HYDROMORE project, which seeks to investigate closer some important aspects of aerodynamic coupling on floating offshore wind substructures.
The turbine is towed underwater. Differences in density and viscosity, compared to air, can be compensated for, whilst lower flow speeds allow us to obtain high resolution temporal data, with much lower sampling rates than are required for wind tunnel studies. The turbine was 700 mm diameter, and demonstrated excellent agreement compared to earlier studies, both for with and without ambient turbulence in the freestream.
You can find the full paper available here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/373628908_Preliminary_performance_assessment_from_towing_tank_testing_of_a_horizontal-axis_turbine