Further Work
Upon conclusion of this project,consideration has gone into how this project could be improved/ further developed if there was more time/resources available.
For the design/apparatus used, the following changes would be considered
If further work was to be undertaken in conjunction with this project by a future MEng student, the following could be considered
For the design/apparatus used, the following changes would be considered
- Use of 1000 ohm rated strain gauges rather than 350 ohm strain gauges. Increasing the resistance of the strain gauges means that they are more sensitive to any strain experienced by the element with which they are attached to. This would improve the quality of the signal received from the force measurement
- With more funding available to the project, the student would have selected to use waterproofed strain gauges. This would have eliminated the need for waterproofing techniques in the experiment.
- With more workshop hours, the blade designed in SolidEdge would be created and attached to the spar. With this addition to the apparatus used, further analysis could have been carried out to see how the turbulence intensity would affect the forcing on the test apparatus upon altering the angle of attack.
- Increasing the fluid velocity by using a more powerful current pump. This would have allowed for greater forces to be applied on the spar and so more closely resemble the flow speeds felt in areas such as at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC)
If further work was to be undertaken in conjunction with this project by a future MEng student, the following could be considered
- An analysis using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software would have been undertaken had more time been allowed within the project. With the use of CFD software, the results obtained through practical experimentation could be validated. This may have been developed further to create an optimal blade design for the tidal industry.