Model Turbine

The renewable energy workshops are a mixture of practical and theory. During the day you will learn about what causes tides, how tidal energy can be harnessed, what happens to plan for tidal energy harvesting: including environmental impact studies, engineering considerations and more. For the practical sessions you will design and build model turbines, and then test them on Clevedon’s Marine Lake! Here are some details of the kit you will be using:

A photo of the model turbine mounted on a raft made from domestic drain pipes and wood with the electronics mounted on it.

This photo shows the assembled turbine mounted onto a raft ready to be tested. The turbine is 3d printed in yellow plastic with the gearing system mounted above it. The plastic box on the left of the raft holds the prototype electronics to measure the location (via a GPS chip), the time (which, with location, allows the speed of travel to be calculated) and the electricity generated (via the white cable).

An image of the turbine showing a 3d printed blade and a generator with gearing all mounted on a wooden board.
An image showing the gearing and generator for the model turbine.

The first image shows the model turbine mounted on a board with simple wiring linking it to the gearing system and motor (being used as a generator). The second image shows the gearing and generator.

An image of the model turbine electronics inside a sturdy plastic case with lead emerging.
An image showing the pcb for the electronics that sits on the raft with the model turbine. It is enclosed inside a plastic case.

Here the first image shows the newly encased, second generation electronics designed by Dave Lowther, and the second shows them in close-up.

An image showing the display from the logging app for the model turbine.

Our bespoke electronics also has a Wi-Fi module so it is able to connect to an app on a several devices at once. This lets the users do several things:

  • control the logging of data from the test runs
  • monitor the voltage output, the speed of movement and the GPS/LED status
  • record the raft speed and motor output.
The data recorded can be output as log files which can be downloaded to phone or laptop for later analysis.
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