When Russell Westbrook and Mete Sireli of Clean Current Power Systems needed to do some turbine performance testing, they chose Binsfeld’s TorqueTrak products to help them look for answers. Clean Current ran their proprietary “generator in open circuit” in a tank full of water to determine the total losses of the turbine due to various effects such as “generator cogging”, “bearing friction”, and “viscous losses”.
After completing the water tank tests in their shop, they sent the turbine to the Institute of Ocean technology for testing in their 200m tow tank. Part of this testing included using a hydraulic brake equipped with a force transducer to determine the torque produced by the turbine. They ran the generator in “open circuit” as in the previous test. A known brake pressure was applied to keep the turbine rotational speed constant. Using this information they correlated the brake pressure to the measured brake torque required to run the turbine at a given torque and rotational speed.
The in-house tank tests with Binsfeld’s TorqueTrak System and the towing tank tests with a custom built brake-force transducer allowed Clean Current to determine the hydrodynamic performance of their proprietary turbine.