Use a open-loop pump system
Posted by Maarten Kanters to Equipment, 2009-10-27 14:26:47
A single pipe will transport seawater from each turbine base to the generator platform.
This makes the wind farm an open-loop system.
For conventional turbines, electricity is already generated in the nacelle. A system of gears and
a generator converts the power in the rotor shaft to electric power. The electricity is conducted
through a cable, along the base of the turbine support structure, to a generator platform.
The closed-loop system is in fact a hydraulic gear which transmits the
power from the top of the wind turbine to the base. Pump A is directly linked to the rotor shaft.
Its purpose is to generate, as efficiently as possible, high pressure in pipe 1.
Essentially, what pump A does is initiate a volume flow Q at high pressure p in the closed-loop
pipe. At the end of the entire system is the generator. The harder it is to turn the rotor of a
generator (the more torque is required), the more power it produces. The torque required to power
the generator determines the pressure in the open-loop system. The pressure and the volume flow
of the fluid in the open-loop system determine the torque that motor B is required to produce. The
torque motor B is required to produce determines the pressures in the closed-loop system. Hence,
the torque required to power the generator can be translated into flow resistance throughout the
entire system. This flow resistance determines the pressure.
an advantage of this set-up is also that the weight of the nacelle (and thus support-stucture) can be reduced compared to conventional systems.