The enormous inroads made by renewable energy in recent years have been the key to the development of new technologies designed to obtain energy from a range of resources. Hydrokinetic microturbines used to harness kinetic energy from rivers, tidal and marine currents epitomize such developments. As the reservoir is dispensed with, the water footprint normally associated with conventional hydroelectric generation is minimized. The new prototypes being developed require laboratories with water tunnel infrastructures where they can be accurately reproduced under controlled conditions. However, the construction of a water tunnel demands considerable investment, which prevents many research groups from completing their prototype design work. This paper charts the design of a low-cost hydrodynamic water tunnel at the University of Oviedo, indicating the mechanical and electronic elements as well as the software developments that make up the facility. This construction is a part of a research strategy focused on making the study of new hydrokinetic microturbines designs economically feasible. Moreover, it includes a description of a special software application used to perform the characterization of a hydrokinetic microturbine model in the water tunnel and a demonstration of the scope of the facility in the experimental study of a unit with a Darrieus rotor.
Smart cities have a significant impact on the future of renewable energies as terms such as sustainability and energy saving steadily become more common. In this regard, both wind and hydrokinetic compact-size turbines can play important roles in urban communities by providing energy to nearby consumption points in an environmentally suitable manner. To evaluate the operation of a Darrieus turbine rotor as a wind or hydro microgenerator, a series of wind tunnel and water current flume tests were performed. Power and characteristic curves were obtained for all test conditions. In the wind tests, all curves seemed to be identical, which means that the turbine rotor works properly under open-field conditions. Two blockage correction equations were applied to the water channel tests that were performed under blockage values ranging from 0.2 to 0.35 to estimate the operational behavior in open water. Finally, it has been demonstrated that, with the condition of maintaining the Reynolds number between experiments in the wind tunnel and water flume, the turbine wind characteristics represents the its operation in open-water conditions.
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