Harnessing Tidal Power

Tidal turbines work very much like submerged wind turbines, however, they are driven by the flow of water rather than air. They can be installed either in areas with high tidal currents or in places with continuous ocean currents to harness the energy from the vast volumes of flowing water. Increasing energy generation efficiency of these systems is very important to meet targets on renewable energy generation set by governments around the world.

The blades of the tidal turbine are generally manufactured from carbon and glass fibre reinforced composite materials and operate in a very hostile environment for extended life spans. Tidal turbines are designed for a 25 years life span and can be installed in depths of 100 m depth. They are also subjected to fatigue loading throughout their service life.

MERL has been developing suitable methodologies for predicting the fatigue life of composite elements subjected to uni-axial loading as well as the effects of seawater exposure, high cycle fatigue evaluation, adhesive bonding of dissimilar materials and designing parts with large thickness changes through ply terminations. This work builds on many years of design, analytical and testing expertise with working for aerospace, automotive and marine industry clients.

For more details on this project or other enquiries regarding fracture and fatigue testing of composites contact : - Dr Stefanos Giannis