Mr R Bromfield, Dr D Venetsanos
Applications accepted all year round
Self-Funded PhD Students Only
About the Project
As most of the tidal flows around the UK & France are below 1m/s and inshore, then the Hales turbine is an ideal device to harvest vast sea areas for power generation.
The patented Hales turbine can be used in tidal stream seawater, ‘run of river’ (one way flow), or any flowing fluid (water treatment works, water supply, etc). We started by developing this device with a 4, 5, and 6 bladed single cylinder un-ducted turbine to find out the best and most efficient mode. This, in turn, led to a ducted turbine which gave us a very efficient, sturdy and debris protected machine.
The visual aspects are that the Turbine units are not only unobtrusive, but are of modular design and can be ‘stacked’ or placed in arrays. The Hales can be position on the sea/river bed, mid-height or floated just below the surface. The blades of the turbines work well in turbulent water flows, and are fish and eel friendly.
The manufacture of the turbine has now shown us that this device can be made very economically. The unit cost of energy output (total costs/KWh) is extremely Low. The turbine design allows for ‘flat pack’ delivery.
We are developing a twin cylinder, contra-rotating turbine, and research and development work has to be carried out to show that even better efficiencies and robustness are to be discovered. This will require CFD research, such as the positioning of baffles/ducting to direct flow, etc. A ‘model’ of this development will then be compared to real water applications. Also a submersible power generator is to be placed onto the Hales turbine so that it produces electrical energy from low revolutions of the device.
Funding Notes
There is no funding for this project: applications can only be accepted from self-funded candidates
Continue with Facebook
