Hi Peter, I believe the device you are after is linked with Griffith University on the Gold Coast and they are still doing research into this area. I'm not sure if they have done anything commercially. There is a more research based paper on this 'ducted current turbine' at http://www.cyberiad.net/library/pdf/bk_tidal_paper15aug03.pdf. However, if you are after more general information on river current turbines, the Garman Turbine has been used in Africa for many years. It is basically a wind turbine looking propeller connected to a long shaft that is angled down into a flowing river behind a boat with bearing and gearing assemblies. The website for Thropton Energy Services who manufactures these is http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/throptonenergy/. Good technical info and pictures.
We are doing some research here at Nottingham Trent University into both chanelling devices for current turbines and a floating undershot waterwheel but these are only final year student projects at the moment. Hope this helps. Robert Simpson -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of peterevans_33 Sent: 09 August 2005 04:26 To: [email protected] Subject: [microhydro] flowing river power hi all, many years ago I saw a tv program about an australian design that generated power from running rivers. It consisted of a twin hulled pontoon, catamran design, then below the water there was a turbine of about 80cm diameter. I assume some sort of belt system for gearing. The pontoon is moored by cables and goes up and down with the river flow. The idea is that it can harness power from rivers that have a shallow gradient. No weirs, dams etc required. Yes power is fairly low because of low water speed, but torque is high. Seemed a pretty simple though useful device. Does anyone know what it is called, if it ever went anywhere. Rough size was about 9ft wide x 15ft long. Another way might be an undershot wheel using simpler materials, effeciecny would be less. But then as the water could flow all around it due to not having a shute/sluice to channel the water, I suspect that a below surface rotor would be more cost effective. Of course all electrics would be above water line. N. Peter Evans Does your company feature in the microhydro business directory at http://microhydropower.net/directory ? If not, please register free of charge and be exposed to the microhydro community world wide! NOTE: The advertisements in this email are added by Yahoogroups who provides us with free email group services. The microhydro-group does not endorse products or support the advertisements in any way. More information on micro hydropower at http://microhydropower.net To unsubscribe: send empty message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links This email is intended solely for the addressee. It may contain private and confidential information. If you are not the intended addressee, please take no action based on it nor show a copy to anyone. In this case, please reply to this email to highlight the error. Opinions and information in this email that do not relate to the official business of Nottingham Trent University shall be understood as neither given nor endorsed by the University. Nottingham Trent University has taken steps to ensure that this email and any attachments are virus-free, but we do advise that the recipient should check that the email and its attachments are actually virus free. This is in keeping with good computing practice. Does your company feature in the microhydro business directory at http://microhydropower.net/directory ? If not, please register free of charge and be exposed to the microhydro community world wide! NOTE: The advertisements in this email are added by Yahoogroups who provides us with free email group services. The microhydro-group does not endorse products or support the advertisements in any way. More information on micro hydropower at http://microhydropower.net To unsubscribe: send empty message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/microhydro/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
