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Welcome to the UNH-CORE turbine test bed wiki! The turbine test bed is designed for fully-automated testing of vertical (cross-flow) axis turbines in the tow tank. If interested in using the turbine test bed, please contact Professor Martin Wosnik. For operating instructions, see operation.
| Spec | Value |
|---|---|
| Turbine frontal area (nominal) | 1 m2 |
| Max power dissipation | 1 kW |
| Max RPM | 300 |
| Servo gearbox ratio | 20:1 |
| Cont. stall torque | 240 Nm |
| Peak stall torque | 818 Nm |
The turbine is loaded via a Kollmorgen AKM62Q servo motor, powered by a Kollmorgen AKD servo drive and controlled by the tow tank's main motion controller over the EtherCAT network. Loading the turbine in this way provides precise control over the turbine tip speed ratio. By default, the turbine is commanded to "jog" at a constant speed by the controller. However, open-loop, or "torque mode" operation is also possible.
- 1.25" diameter shafts
- 1.25" diameter stainless pillow block bearings (McMaster 3756T140)
- R+W EKH EKH/300/B zero-backlash curved jaw couplings
The main frame is mounted to two drag slide assemblies, each of which can measure up to 500 lbf (2224 N) drag force. An Interface T8 200 Nm inline torque transducer is used to measure torque. Additionally, the turbine servo motor is mounted on a slewing ring bearing, such that its torque is transferred to a 200 lbf (890 N) load cell mounted at 16 in (0.4064 m) from the axis, providing a redundant torque measurement with a 362 Nm capacity.
See TurbineDAQ for a desktop GUI application used to operate the system.