Tidal energy, of all marine renewables energy,
possesses higher persistency and predictability over longtime
scales. Moreover, the higher density of water than air
also results in greater power output from a tidal turbine
than a wind turbine with similar dimensions. Due to the
aggressive marine environment, there are barriers in the
development of tidal power generation technology. In
particular, with regard to increased rotor diameter, the
selection of material presents significant challenges to be
addressed including the tribological environment, such as
solid particle erosion, cavitation erosion, the effect of high
thrust loading on the turbine blade tips and the synergy
between sea water conditions and such tribological phenomena.
This research focuses on producing and testing a
variety of composite materials with different fibres and
reinforcement layouts to evaluate two main tribological
issues in tidal environments: matrix cutting and reinforcement
fracture. A slurry pot test rig was used to measure the
effects of different impact angles and particles sizes at
constant tip speeds.