Application of Mechanical Energy Storage in Micro-Fluid Turbine Design
A micro-fluid turbine with mechanical energy storage system is designed and successfully tested in laboratory. As energy supplement for deep ocean installations, this patent design solved the problem of difficult generating electricity in ultra-low speed flow. The conventional marine current turbine can hardly get start in flows with velocity lower than 0.5m/s, whereas the marine current speed is seldom higher than one knot in deep sea. By adding a mechanical energy storage system, the rotor of the micro-fluid turbine first captures the fluid kinetic energy from the ultra-low speed flow, and then the energy transferred to the mechanical energy storage system, in which a plane scroll spring is used to store the limited energy and drive the generator automatically when it has enough potential energy. Simulation and laboratory test show that this method has potential for power generating in low density ocean current environment.