Resilient Turbine Design
Led by
Ionut Cardei, Ph.D.
Affiliated Home Campus: Boca Raton
Affiliated Department: Computer & Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
The Southeast National Marine Renewable Energy Center (SNMREC) is working towards making ocean current energy a viable power source for the state of Florida. To be economically viable, large arrays of these turbines must be used. This project models a large ocean current turbine generator array system in Python. This type of system is called an interdependent network, which consists of a mooring, power, and communication system that are dependent on one another. The increased dependency links creates an increased probability for catastrophic failure of the system. The goal of this project is to identify factors, such as mechanical failures or marine life interaction, which could cause the system to fail completely. This research will help ocean current turbine manufacturers identify the most vulnerable parts of ocean current turbine arrays, and aid in creating more robust turbine generator arrays in the future.