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Abstract up until 250 years ago and the tidal mill at Eling on
Southampton water. Such systems rely on a fixed
A proposal is made for the use of a traditional stream infrastructure to support the waterwheel; either a bridge or
waterwheel suspended between two floating catamaran similar pier structure. This significantly increases the
NPL series demi-hulls as means of generating electrical associated capital cost and environmental impact. An
power. Two prototype devices, of lengths 1.6m and 4.5m, alternative approach is to use a moored floating structure,
have been developed, constructed and tested. It was found in this case a catamaran, to support the weight of the
that the concept is sound although greater investment is wheel/generator system. The use of a moored device
required with regards to the materials and both allows easy access to remote coastal communities where it
hydrodynamic and aerodynamic design of the waterwheel is often expensive to build a fixed infrastructure, and also
to ensure an economically viable system. The work facilitates removal to a place of refuge when extreme storm
presented concentrates on practical aspects associated with conditions occur. Such systems can also exploit shallow
design, construction and trial testing in Southampton water water sites or those with large variations in water level.
of the 4.5m prototype. The relatively low cost, ease of This project investigates the development of a concept
deployment, and the fact that conventional boat mooring design of a floating tidal mill for extracting power from the
systems are effective, combine to make this an attractive kinetic energy of a tidal stream or a river. Tidal stream
alternative energy solution for remote communities. energy has enormous potential in the United Kingdom, and
also worldwide, for the generation of clean renewable
Keywords: Floating tidal wheel, marine renewable energy, energy [1]. Most proposed or implemented devices for the
tidal turbine extraction of energy from a tidal stream are Kaplan or
Ossberger (Cross-flow) turbines [2]. Currently such turbine
designs have a high unit capital cost per kilowatt that
Nomenclature requires large scale application to make them economically
attractive for developers [2]. Hence it is useful to explore
A = bh, Reference area (m2) alternative concepts which may be more cost-effective and
b = Breadth of waterwheel (m) also be more practicable in remote and hostile locations.
CP = Power coefficient Waterwheels are regarded as the first known method
D = Diameter (m) used to replace humans and animals for generating
h = Depth of immersion (m) mechanical energy. Waterwheels can be classed as
L = Hull length between perpendiculars (m) overshot, breastshot, and undershot (all of which work
n = Rate of revolution (s-1) through extracting potential energy) or a stream design, as
Q = Torque (Nm) illustrated in Figure 1.
SH = Demi-Hull separation between centre lines (m) A stream waterwheel was chosen for this investigation
V = Current speed (m/s) as it is most suited to the low head flow as typified by near-
λ = Tip speed ratio shore tidal induced currents or in lowland rivers, as it is an
ρ = Water density (kg/m3) impulse device, working through extraction of kinetic
energy.
This paper describes the development of a demonstrator
© Proceedings of the 7th European Wave and Tidal floating tidal wheel. This uses a pair of 4.5m long
Energy Conference, Porto, Portugal, 2007 catamaran demi-hulls between which is suspended a 2m
diameter tidal wheel.
3 Waterwheel Design
Masahiro et al., [4], discuss the use of a stream
Figure 1 The Four classes of waterwheel waterwheel in a restricted breadth channel. Changes in
blade immersion, water depth, discharge and load on the
Figure 2 shows the breakdown of work for the project. waterwheel are investigated. The effect of a restricted
breadth channel is described as a damming up effect and
increases the efficiency of the waterwheel tested to 45%.
The efficiency increased because the head change due to
the restricted breadth provided additional thrust to the
waterwheel supplementing that of the free stream. A
relationship between the raised water level due to the
waterwheel presence and the energy output of the
waterwheel is derived.
A project at the University of Karlsruhe in Germany has
developed a stream waterwheel mounted on a floating
platform [5]. The waterwheel was constructed of larch
wood to resist humidity changes. The system was designed
to power two water pumps rated at 4kW and 2.2kW
respectively, for recycling rainwater. Although this system
is a new design using modern methods, it was designed for
a purpose that waterwheels were traditionally used for;
unlike the work of this project, where the waterwheel is
Figure 2 A flow chart showing the breakdown of work for designed to generate electricity with a possible application
the project being a remote community.
A preliminary survey of historical waterwheels was
The work was divided into five phases: performed to investigate the correlation between the design
1) Preliminary model scale experiments were undertaken parameters of the waterwheel. Information was gathered
to inform choices in the subsequent design of the tidal from publicly available UK based websites for similar
mill, and to familiarize the group with the tidal mill river/tidal waterwheels [3]. Figure 3 is a plot of operational
concept. rotational speed against waterwheel diameter, and paddle
2) Further development was undertaken using an breadth against waterwheel diameter.
upstream hydrofoil, catamaran hulls and a power take- The rpm data is shown in black and the breadth data is
off on an existing waterwheel. This lead to the design shown in grey. This illustrates that, from the limited
and testing of the prototype tidal mill in experimental information available, there is no correlation between the
facilities. design parameters of historic waterwheels. The likely cause
3) A 2m diameter stream waterwheel design was of this is that previous waterwheel designs were chosen
produced following these experiments. This was based on designs that already existed or were proven to
integrated into the demonstrator tidal mill with the work. Waterwheel designs would have been very specific
catamaran hulls, mooring and power take-off to the intended purpose and location of the waterwheel.
developed from prototype scale.
Figure 3 Survey of typical waterwheel operating/design
parameters
Figure 5 Definition of dimensions and angles for BEM
3.1 Blade Element Momentum (BEM) based theory analysis of the paddle blade
Figure 15 Experimental setup for the tests of the It can be seen that in an average flow velocity of 0.55m/s
demonstrator tidal mill using the engine to accelerate the the demonstrator tidal mill generated up to 6.4W of power
flow with the peak occurring at a tip speed ratio of 0.45,
corresponding to an operational rotational speed of 2.4rpm.
In the second set of tests the tidal mill was towed behind In the average flow velocity of 1.19m/s the concept tidal
a workboat at a steady speed, as shown in Figure 16. mill generated up to 45W of power, with the peak
Measurements were taken from on-board the RIB alongside occurring at a tip speed ratio of 0.4, corresponding to an
the assembly from which the weight on the power take-off operational rotational speed of 6.4rpm. The peak power
system was also adjusted. The flow velocity relative to the generation is within the range of tip speed ratios of 0.4-0.55
RIB and the tidal mill was measured and the rotational
speed calculated from the averaged time measured for the
wheel to turn five revolutions.. The tidal mill was towed
parallel to the free stream flow direction in an average flow
velocity of 1.19m/s.
5.5 Discussion