In a sealed-off security area of the IABG test and analysis centre, the drive section of an innovative wave power plant was put into operation for the first time and was qualified with regard to its vibration behaviour. The drive train of Calder GmbH, a subsidiary of the Flowserve group, consists of a basic steel frame on which a Pelton turbine, a mass flywheel and a generator are installed.
The test campaign was linked to the objective of qualifying the transient and stationary vibration behaviour of the drive section by measurement, in particular in the vibration-critical speed range.
For this purpose, the test item was firmly fixed at the bottom of a 5 metres deep test pit. The generator was operated with a regenerative converter engine and accelerated the flywheel and turbine to the specified revolving speed. One of the challenges was to guarantee the operational safety of the fast turning flywheel. Therefore, once the test item had been installed, the test pit was covered with ten concrete bolts with a weight of 7.5 t each, in order to avoid any risk exposure outside the pit in case of a highly unlikely bursting of the flywheel.
Worth mentioning is the extremely tight schedule for test setup, execution and dismantling of the facility within 5 weeks. It was thus possible to install the drive section in North Scotland and to take the wave power station into operation in time before severe autumn and winter storms set in.
With this project, IABG sets yet another milestone in the consistent development of its service portfolio in the ‘renewable energies’ sector.
