The last cavitation testing period of the ACORN project have concluded with good preliminary results. The coatings developed during the project, and which were applied on a marine turbine prototype, have been exposed to very aggressive conditions in a cavitation tunnel. After visual inspection, no significant defects have been identified.
CTC and Tocardo Tidal Turbines have supervised the tests conducted at SVA facilities located in Potsdam (Germany). The purpose of these tests was the validation of the results obtained in the phase of numerical modeling and the material erosion. The final inspection to validate the cavitation erosion results will be carried out by TWI.
After undertaking the state of the art research, selecting three coating materials for researching and the application of the coatings in samples to carry out the tests, the phase of detailed analysis of the results will be the final stage of the project.