I have found out this week that there are several ways to find the current speed of water. From high tech to crude bottle and rope method. The project we are working on has so many different ways to do it and electronics to assist you, that it has completely twisted my head into circles. It will be hard to make it simple.
I have found some accelerometers to help gather the data, the "BOBS" to float the accelerometer in, and a potential design. The HOBO is a strong possibility for the accelerometer.
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| HOBO Pendant G Data Logger |
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We will not be able to drop our data gathering equipment by suspending it from on the top of the water in the middle in the inlet, so we were thinking about out having our BOB with the HOBO in it, weighted to the bottom of the inlet. The BOB, however, would float up into the main current. It would be like a helium filled balloon anchored to something heavy on the floor. There may be some problems with this. Which will direct our project into a little different path.
A different method we can use instead of the HOBO, would be to use a current meter. But this will require us to spend intermittent 12-hour days checking the speed every 15 minutes. Either way will get us the data we need. We found the minimum currents required to run different types of turbines. This will tell us, based of the mean current speed at the inlet, if it would be worth putting up the turbines or what size and type of turbine could be supported.
I'm excited to finally read your post! First of many questions to come...what have you determined is the minimum current required to run a turbine?
ReplyDeleteIt actually depends upon which turbine. Each turbine requires a different minimum current speed. We are going to match a turbine with our current speed.
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