Multi-staged cowl for a hydrokinetic turbine
AssigneeTelesysteme Energie Ltee
InventorImad Hamad
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The multi-staged cowl described herein allows to increase and maximize water mass flow and pressure drop at the runner cross-section of a hydrokinetic turbine so as to maximize produced power output, while respecting dimensional constraints provided by a shallow body of water, a river for example, in which the hydrokinetic turbine can be submerged. The multi-staged cowl described herein can thus be configured so as to allow water to flow through the hydrokinetic turbine at a substantially stable water mass flow, eliminating instability, avoiding vortices, minimizing cavitation and avoiding fluid separation to negligible levels, and can include an inlet, an outlet and multiple stages which can extend between the inlet and the outlet, so that water can flow therethrough in a water flow direction.
Claims21
A multi-staged cowl for receiving at least part of a hydrokinetic turbine comprising a hub and blades radially extending therefrom, the multi-staged cowl comprising:
- an inlet;
- an outlet;
- and
- multiple discrete stages extending between the inlet and the outlet for receiving the hydrokinetic turbine therein, the multiple discrete stages defining a water flow channel for flow of water therethrough along a water flow direction from the inlet towards the outlet;
- wherein the multiple discrete stages define a height substantially constant along the water flow direction;
- wherein the cowl further includes an outer reinforcement structure for reinforcing the multiple discrete stages comprising a plurality of spaced apart upper ribs, the upper ribs each upwardly extending from the multiple discrete stages and adapted to facilitate water flow around the multiple discrete stages;
- and
- wherein at least one of the multiple discrete stages defines a width increasing non-linearly along the water flow direction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.