Projects of interest Renewable Energy Unit

TIM "Floating intelligent meteorological tower for the characterization of wind and marine environment resources"

OBJECTIVES

The principal objective of this project is to develop a floating meteorological tower to measure and characterize wind resources in deep water (greater than 50 meters) through the implementation of intelligent systems on the structure, installation and operation.

The specific objective is the design and development of a floating structure that, through an intelligent system of sensors and instruments, permits the characterization of wind and marine environment resources and also the design and development of an intelligent mooring system for deep water floating devices applicable for both measurement systems and future floating wind turbines anchor systems. The development of the technologies involved in intelligent moorings systems will permit monitoring the state of health and safety of the system.

This structure will consist of a measurement system for wind resource and marine environment characterization unavailable on the market. This constitutes a prerequisite and necessary step for site definition and installation of offshore wind farms.

As part of this Project and within the Mooring System Design and Development Task, led by IDERMAR, CTC is responsible for the following subtasks, while receiving input from the rest of the Consortium members:

• Definition of specifications.
• Design and development of a methodology to carry out intelligent mooring systems.

PARTICIPANTS

• IDERMAR, IH CANTABRIA, VICINAY CADENAS, CTC and IKERLAN-IK4.

DURATION

• 2010 - 2012

FINANCING

• MICINN - INNPACTO Program. Exp. nº IPT-440000-2010-5

CONTACT

• Raúl Rodríguez

More information: info@ctcomponentes.com

 

Development of an Energy Harvester for a Wireless System (SAYME).

In this project different kinds of environmental energy harvesters were evaluated, analysing the possibility of use them as low power energy sources for a Wireless Net of sensors, while  totally/partially replacement of its batteries. The devices were developed for SAYME's ultra low power SENSbee technology for "SHM in big metallic structures".

The main tasks were: theoretical study of possible technologies; design, development and laboratory test in suitable benches of vibrating and solar harvesters as sources for ultra low power Wireless - sensors.

A methodology for testing the prototypes' performances was developed based on:

• Environmental simulators.
• Totally automatic data acquisition.
• Automatic offline analysis.

 

The vibration workbench for testing the piezoelectric harvester is in the Picture.

 

 

Calculation and redesign of  solar tracking Tower.

This project consists of the following tasks:

Structural calculations of the mast, steel beams and hinge of a solar photovoltaic tracker, to predict the capacity of the tracker to bear the loads (wind, snow, etc), established by the NBE-EA-95 standard.

Re-design of the roll-movement system using a crank gear on the existing platform, to adapt the structure to the modifications in the original project.

CFD Fluid-Dynamic interaction analysis among different trackers, predicting the trackers' wakes, to preview the perfect location of the anemometer.

 

 

Study of secondary stresses and fatigue in a heat exchanger for Thermal Solar Central

ANDASOL-1.

The project's objective was to predict the lifetime of the heat-exchangers of the ANDASOL-1 solar thermal power station under the design conditions, by means of the calculation of the secondary and fatigue stresses following the ASME code, Section VIII Division 2.

 

Redesign of rotor and anchor vertical axis wind turbine blade.

This project consists of the following tasks:

Design of branched shovel: the aim of this design was the reduction of the number of prototypes of shovel to perform. This branched shovel wrap a sleeve of polymeric material flexible in this way you can test with different exposure to wind, area without changing shovel.

Re-design of the bolting of the rotor blade: This re-design improved the wind turbine's safety during the mounting process, because in case the joint failed, the blade didn't get out of its place due to the spin inertia.

Structural calculation of the whole turbine: The analysis of the shaft and the blade-rotor group was made by FEM models. The aim of these calculations was to simulate a real test of the turbine: a static square distributed 150 km/h wind load with blocked rotor.

 

 

Analysis of noise and vibration of electrical machines.

Actual trend in alternators' market is to minimize N&V emissions while increasing the power. For achieving these two goals simultaneously generators need to undergo strict quality tests, included N&V emissions.

The current trend in the alternators' market is to minimize N&V emissions while increasing the power. For achieving these two goals simultaneously alternators need to undergo strict quality tests, including N&V emissions.

Controlling noise and vibration properties on cars' alternators is necessary for assuring:

• Product durability
• Minimum negative ergonomic effects

Electrical generators present very specific vibration effects because of their electrical and magnetic mechanisms. However their great number of components and their design, material, assembling process, and their non-linear dependencies make it impossible to isolate and study each factor separately.

The aim of this project was to design and implement an automated sound and vibration analyser to work simultaneously with other tests, to be adapted to the end of the assembly line, and be robust under environmental disturbances.
Main tasks were:

• Gain theoretical and experimental understanding of the alternator's N&V.
• Develop an optimized measurement methodology.
• Develop software tools for control, online data acquisition, filtering and analysis.
• Develop software tools for offline deeper analysis and classification.
• System's integration in the production line.

 

Aerodynamics study of the WINDSPOT 3,5 kW windmill turbine from SONKYO ENERGY.

The purpose of this project was to evaluate the aerodynamic behavior of the wind turbine from WINDSPOT 3,5 kW of the company SONKYO ENERGY. That analysis was made in two main stages:

1. Theoretical study of the blade aerodynamic behavior, taking into account parameters such as:

• Blade geometry. Aerodynamic profile shape. angle of attack in each section or blade twisting.
• Blade tip shape.
• Turbine's rotational velocity.

2. Turbine performance simulation, using CFD software Ansys-CFX 13.0. The goal of this simulation is:

• To obtain an accurate forecast of the flux behavior around the blades.
• To locate exactly the flow separation zones in the blade.
• To obtain a pressure distribution chart in the blade.
• To obtain the behavior curves of the turbine according to different rotational velocities: Torque, power, drag and efficiency curves.