Final Report Summary - TIDALSENSE DEMO (Demonstration of a Condition Monitoring System for Tidal Stream Generators.) Executive Summary:The TidalSense Demo project, along with its predecessor, Tidal Sense (both funded under FP7), aims to contribute to the operational cost reduction of Tidal Energy Convertors (TECs) by use of ‘Condition Monitoring Systems (CMS)’, specifically the TidalSense Demo CMS that has been developed. By addressing the potential damage and failure, prior to a catastrophic failure, the TSD CMS allows for planned maintenance and as such has a substantial cost benefit for tidal energy production operators and owners. Furthermore, the TSD CMS is so designed that it can be incorporated within the TECs as it is being built (new TECs) and also be retro-fitted to TECs already in the field, this allows for maximising the cost benefit over the whole range of TECs.Broadly, the ‘TidalSense Demo’ project’s objective is to implement the outcome of the ‘TidalSense’ project and demonstrate the feasibility of the developed sensor technologies in a commercial environment with field trials on wide range of Tidal Energy Converters (TEC) and thus demonstrate the viability of using the TSD system with ‘bespoke’ TEC systems.The TSD monitoring system consisting at its heart Macro Fibre composite (MFC) sensors, a Teletest Control Unit and other essential parameter monitoring components. With sea field trials conducted using Nautricity Hydro-buoy and Aqua Energy Solutions (AES) sails, two completely different systems, our CMS has been demonstrated to operate in two modes; automatic periodic measurements (APM) and spot measurements (SP); both modes rely on Ultrasonic Guided Wave Technology. The software which has data processing and analysis using Neural Networks was also validated during sea and laboratory trials. The first trial (Nautricity Hydro-buoy) showed off the adaption of the TSD to a newly designed tidal energy convertor i.e. TECs having built in sensors from the very start, the second trial (AES sails), demonstrated the adaption of the TSD system to a TEC system already up and running i.e. showed retro-fitting capability. The third trial explored the replacement of new transducer for ‘old’. The results indicated good to excellent agreement with the results from pre and post replacement. This illustrates, replacements of sensors can be done as required and yet maintain the compatability with the ‘old’ system before the replacement (for whatever reason); this is an important demonstration for any commercial system running day in and day out. With TidalSense Demo the consortium has been very active in promoting the project and its considerable achievements in TEC monitoring. Moreover, the TSD system has many useful applications beyond its use in the monitoring of TEC devices. Any industry which by its nature contains inaccessible but critical components made from composites can be considered a possible parallel market. A good example of this is Oil and Gas sectors where there are a lot of critical pipes and valves either buried underground or deep in the sea. The costs of reaching these pipes can be significant, especially when specialist equipment (ROVs) / personnel (divers) are involved. Furthermore, if a component failure causes a large spill, it can be extremely costly and dangerous to human life and ecosystems. Our TSD can also be applied to critical wire cables used as support for heavy structures such as bridges. While it is not possible to explore this wide market and prove this outright, we have commenced to engage with such non TEC industries and players beyond the obvious TEC application markets that the project is focussed upon. In summary, there were two main project outcomes which were met:1. The validation of the Condition Monitoring System (CMS) including the sensors, software and other components on Tidal Energy Converters (TEC) manufactured using modern composite materials2. The validation with Sea Trials on several different TECs including ‘new’ TECs i.e. those beyond that the CMS was originally designed for illustrating the versatility of the TSD systemProject Context and Objectives:It is well recognised that Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission are factors in our climate changes of recent years and as such decarbonisation of the energy sector is receiving unprecedented attention of policy makers, politicians, investors and scientists. With significant wave and tidal energy resources in Europe, the development and deployment presents great opportunities and serious challenges to a decarbonised future.In order to be an important contributor to the European energy mix, tidal energy needs to be competitive with other renewable sources. The technical barriers are perceived as been surmountable but cost reduction is unclear. This project TidalSense Demo, along with its predecessor, Tidal Sense (both funded under FP7), aims to contribute to the cost reduction by use of ‘Condition Monitoring Systems (CMS)’. Addressing the potential damage and failure, prior to a catastrophic failure, CMS allows for planned maintenance and as such has a substantial cost benefit for tidal energy production.Broadly, the ‘TidalSense Demo’ project’s objective is to implement the outcome of the ‘TidalSense’ project and demonstrate the feasibility of the developed sensor technologies in a commercial environment with field trials on wider range of Tidal Energy Converters (TEC), including different ones to those used as reference in the original TidalSense project, and thus demonstrate the commercial potential.There are two types of Tidal-in-stream turbines, those that rotate on the horizontal axis, that is to say that the axis of rotation is horizontal with respect to the ground and parallel to the water flow direction and the other is vertical i.e. the axis of rotation is perpendicular to the flow direction. Within the two main configurations other types of turbines are available. The horizontal axis can be straight or inclined; the straight can either have solid mooring or buoyant mooring and the buoyant mooring can be submerged or non-submerged. The vertical axis too can be further sub divided into four types (straight blade, curved blade, helical blade and straight/skewed). The horizontal axis is preferred due to its ease of control and high starting torque. Tidal turbines, by virtue of the turbines being off shore and submerged (though depending on the type, maintenance can be done above the sea level), clearly access is not easy and inspection and maintenance is costly. Thus it is imperative that any faults in the turbine be correctly detected as early as possible well before severe damage or even catastrophic damage could occur.The systems designed, developed and validated in the TidalSense and TidalSense Demo projects is aimed to demonstrate a condition monitoring system (CMS) that will detect malfunctions and other associated failures and operational abnormalities at an early stage across many of the Tidal Energy Converters (TEC) types thus allowing for planned maintenance to take place.In this regard with the broader objective of condition monitoring, one of the non-destructive testing techniques which enable to detect the defects during in-service inspection is based on application of ultrasonic guided waves using only single- side access. Such waves (Lamb waves) interact with defects present on the propagation path and get reflected, scattered and converted into other modes. The analysis of these ‘reflected’ waves facilitates the detection of defects. In this way it is envisaged and we have validated the technology both in laboratory and field trials to show that the user can benefit from the knowledge of any incipient damage in real time; furthermore it can provide an estimate of the remaining useful life.A CM System (CMS) as with the TidalSense Demo (TSD) system consists of a number of onboard networks of MFC sensors (and other sensors) for data acquisition and a control system with software processing to evaluate the acquired data. The CMS can be broadly categorised as been either active (e.g. MFC) or passive (e.g. AE) or a combination of the two. The advantage of active methods is its ability to excite the transducers thereby inducing a test wave in the structure which will allow data analysis in real time to detect damage. Guided-wave (GW) technology is one of the preferred non-destructive testing or non-destructive evaluation (NDT/NDE) technologies being employed for damage detection. It can enable with software analysis to pin-point likely location, severity and type of damage. In short the technique works as follows: when a GW wave or a field interacts on a defect (delamination, crack, some boundary etc.), which has a size comparable to the GW wavelength; it scatters the GWs in all directions. To distinguish between damage and inherent structural features, it is necessary to have a ‘baseline signal’ obtained in a healthy state. Thus analysing the received signal for delay in transit time, amplitude, frequency content etc. information of the ‘defected’ damage can be estimated. This process involves signal processing algorithms and pattern recognition software. In this regard we have employed Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) for automated signal classification. The Tidal Energy Conversion (TEC) technology has not yet developed to the extent that the Wind Energy has and as such the TEC technology market is still in the pre-commercial stage of its development. This recognition has enabled us to bear in mind that the TSD system developed in this project needs to be very versatile and adaptable to the specific requirements of each individual customer. Bearing this in mind the guided waves technology to detect defects in tidal devices has been tested and validated on two TEC systems:• Hydrobuoy mooring system developed by Nautricity Limited and • Aqua Energy Solution’s sails/blades In addition it was shown that the transducers can be replaced (this was to demonstrate the functional capability of replacing a malfunctioning transducer) with ‘new’ for ‘old’ sensor and achieve good correlation between old and new test data.The successful laboratory and field testing of the ultrasonic guided wave technology on these two systems, the first of which had MFCs adapted or inserted from the very beginning of the manufacture of the hydro-buoy and in the case of the Sails, inserted or retrofitted onto the sails, along with transducer replacement capability showed the adaptability of the TSD system to ‘Bespoke’ systems. This was the main objective of the TidalSense Demo project.Notwithstanding this, the TSD system can be ‘demonstrated’ to have many useful applications beyond its use in the inspection of TEC devices. Any industry which by its nature contains inaccessible but critical components can be considered a possible parallel market. A good example of this is Oil and Gas sector where there are a lot of critical pipes and valves either buried underground or deep in the sea. The costs of reaching these pipes can be significant, especially when specialist equipment and personnel are involved such as remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and divers. It can also be very expensive to complete repairs and a clean-up operation if a critical component fails and oil or gas leaks into the environment. If a component failure causes a large spill, it can be extremely costly and dangerous to human life and ecosystems. Our TSD system could also be applied to critical wire cables used as support for heavy structures such as bridges. These wires are sized to accommodate large loads but are hard to inspect for stress failures and other problems. This is an area where monitoring can be especially useful, as these are often vital parts of a structure that are visually inspected on a regular basis, but due to the structure’s make-up may not be totally visible for inspection. In these critical areas, monitoring with our TSD system would give a further safety net for large structure supports. This ability to deploy the TSD system in Non-Energy harvesting technology is another important aspect that the consortium aims to take forward on completion of this project.Project Results:The ‘Condition Monitoring System (CMS)’ envisaged and developed in the TidalSense Demo project, has four main technical parts:• The design specification• Validation tools • Sea (Field) trials, Integration and Validation • Analysis/presentation of the data.Design Specification: This was addressed in WP 1/Task 1.1 (Please see D1.1 for full details). Composite materials, such as glass or carbon fibre reinforced plastics are used as lightweight and high strength materials in component construction of off- shore engineering constructions such as Tidal Energy Converters (TECs). TECs are subjected to dynamic loads, vibrations, fatigue and harsh environmental conditions and as such must be periodically inspected and tested in order to avoid dangerous defects, like internal delamination, breakage of fibres, cracks and others that may lead to catastrophic failure. The TidalSense Demo (TSD) monitoring system was designed to have at its core Macro Fibre Composite (MFC) transducers, controlled via a Pulse-Receiver Unit. The unit comprises of a number of electronic cards (power units, signal generators, amplifiers, data acquisition, digital inputs/outputs, storage buffers, etc.), was designed and protected to be submergible in sea water. Furthermore, in order to ensure that the guided waves (GWs) travel the required distance, the operation had to be at low frequencies (20-200kHz) and as such the MFC were so chosen to meet this specification. For data transmission, the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/IP (Internet protocol) were used.Two strategies were foreseen and used for TEC monitoring using the TSD CMS system, they were:• Automatic periodic Measurements (APM) Strategy: A permanent installation of both transducers and interfacing electronics in the tidal device will allow an automatic periodic reading of the sensors. This strategy allows for remote ‘Condition Monitoring’ of all the critical and/or more expensive composite material elements and having analysis in real-time and allows for damage rectification before catastrophic failure and moreover predict when intervention maintenance will be necessary• Spot Measurements (SM) strategy: Again a permanent installation of the transducers on critical components allows condition monitoring during specific times such as during maintenance of the tidal device. These on the spot reading of the status of the device, inside the planned maintenance regime, will allow damage rectification during the maintenance time periodThis is a brief overview of the hardware and monitoring methodology. The data processing and analysis software was developed to use Artificial Neural Networks to help with automated pattern recognition of discontinuities (defects). In the pages to follow these are elaborated.Validation Tools: In the main, Macro Fibre Composite (MFCs) sensors were used for monitoring and detection of defects, though a number of other sensors (Gyroscope/Accelerometers, flow sensors, load cells, temperature and humidity sensors etc.) were attached to the TEC critical components to allow essential parameters to be monitored. The use of MFCs, allows one of the non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques of Ultrasonic Guided Waves (GW) using only single- side access to be used to detect defects during in-service inspection. Guided waves that travel on a planar surface known Lamb waves interact with defects present on the propagation path and get reflected, scattered and converted into other modes. The analysis of these ‘reflected’ waves facilitates the detection of defects.Sea Trials, Integration and Validation: In this regard, there were two aims, ‘The installation of replacement blade (Composite material) with embedded sensor’ (Task 4.1) AND ‘The installation of sensor attached to working blade (Composite material)’ (Task 4.2). In addressing the Task 4.1 of WP4 (Sea Trials and Industrial Validation) a number of Marco Fibre Composite (MFC) sensors and other monitors and associated cabling etc. were installed within the Nautricity Tidal Turbine whose main components were the Tidal Generator (CoRMaT), the Hydro-buoy and the mooring system. Nautricity, a Scottish company had developed a novel hydro buoyancy and ‘Contra Rotating Marine Turbine’ (CoRMaT) for harnessing Tidal energy. A unique feature of this system used for our sea trials is the rotor torque from contra-rotating rotors which cancel out and leave a negligible net total torque on the mooring and foundation. Furthermore the use of hydro buoyancy allows the rotor to be located higher in the water column in order to access the higher flow speeds. In this scenario it is important to monitor, the hydro-buoys, the CoRMaT generator, the mooring chain, CoRMaT and the tethers. Our MFC sensors were installed on the hydro-buoy and the rest of the sensors were mainly installed along the mooring chain as these are the most critical component prone to failure.Figure 1 is a schematic of the overall system. The user or operator controls or monitors the overall system from the shore. The TSB (Test Support Buoy) is a floating structure which hosts some of the electronic devices for communication (communication uses Power line communication technology) between the shore and the TSD (TidalSense Devices) which monitor the Hydro-buoy and the CoRMaT generator. From the TSB to the base-station, the TidalSense Demo communication system is performed by means a TCP/IP wireless link. As one would expect, the hydro-buoy keeps the CoRMaT afloat, if the Hydro-buoy (figure 2) or the tethers (figure 3) fail, the CoRMaT is likely to sink to the sea bed. It is thus imperative to monitor using the TSD. For the monitoring of the Hydro-buoy and the CoRMaT, a number of sensors are used. The Hydro-buoy is monitored via a Gyroscope/accelerometer (3D spatial positioning), several ultrasonic transducers, and an IP camera as can be seen in figure 1. Figure 2 shows the MFC sensor configuration of the hydro-buoy schematically and in reality. As stated earlier, in this regard, the Tidalsense System Device (TSD) was installed on the shaft between the mooring chain, the CoRMaT and the tethers (figure 1). An extra Gyroscope/accelerometer was also employed to measure the 3D position of the tidal turbine and the device generates the reference signal the CoRMaT needs to control its braking system and secure its position.The various transducers of which there are many, need to be powered, activated and responses read. For this reason an underwater electronic box (waterproof and sealed) was manufactured (figure 4a shows the opened box with components) and positioned as shown in the schematic of figure 1. The electronic box (figure 4) contained the following components: 1. Power Supply 15VDC 2. Power Supply 24VDC 3. Two Switches 4. Teletest MK4 Pulse-Receiver Unit: This controls the MFCs used for monitoring5. An Industrial PC: Controls and monitors all transducers, electronic devices, sensors, storage of data etc.6. Two Temperature/Humidity Sensors are used for monitoring condensation within the underwater electronic box7. A Power line Communication: To communicate with the TSB 8. One PoE Injector: Supply power to the IP camera9. One LAN/RS232 converter: To monitor and control the Flow meter and the Gyroscopes10. Two RS485/RS232 converter: To monitor the load cell and other sensors11. One DIO/RS485 converter12. One ADAM 6066 (Relay modules): To switch on/off the Teletest and the brake the CoRMaTThe circuit diagram for the connection of the components can be seen in Figure 4b.In order to utilise the TSD system, a set of underwater cables need to be routed and also connected. The underwater cables were routed along the mooring chain as shown in figure 5. The other cables, such as the power supply cable was routed along the seabed from the EMEC power supply underwater connectors to the TSD underwater box. This cable will be also used to perform the Ethernet communication with the external word by means of a PowerLine communication unit.Figure 6 indicates the sensor arrangement and cabling of the hydro-buoy, tethers, moorings and the CoRMaT. The above is a brief description and outline of the main components of the TidalSense Demo system; for a fuller analysis including communication protocols, please refer to the deliverable D4.2. The TSD monitoring system with the dedicated TSD software (including drivers for sensors) can be operate in two modes; automatic periodic measurements (APM) and spot measurements (SP). The software also has the data processing and analysis using Neural Networks. The software is remotely controlled via the TSB (Test Support Buoy). Figure 7 is a screen shot of the data from the TSD software. The screenshot shows the Load cells outputs (Tonnes), the output from the flow meter (X and Y axis), the temperature, humidity and dew-point measurements (two sensors) and the sampling time, a lower sampling time can be configured but a huge quantity of data will be generated, the 20 second sampling time used is deemed sufficient.The First Sea Trials on the Nautricity Hydro-buoy was completed successfully and is reported in D4.2. The second sea trials, was performed on a different ocean energy convertor to the Nautricity Hydro-buoy system described above. The second trials (‘The installation of sensor attached to working blade’ (Task 4.2)) were on an Aqua Energy Solutions (AES) system. The AES concept shown in figure 8 relies on sweeping a large area with hydro-dynamically optimized sails (blades) on moving wires. By using this approach it is possible to tap considerable amounts of kinetic energy from tidal currents in a very cost efficient manner. The sails are permanently attached to two rotating wire loops and thus form an endless chain of optimized energy collectors (figure 9). The tidal current pushes the sails which, in turn, pull the wires. This action, via a gearbox, drives a generator that produces electricity. The wires are controlled and kept in tension between two pulleys anchored securely in the seabed. Though the tidal generator system is different, the TSD monitoring system and concept is the same. The TSD system was tested (validated) using laboratory testing at the partner I&T Nardoni in Brescia (Italy) and sea trials held in Cadiz (Spain). The aim here was:• Validation of the TSD system with laboratory and sea trials on a system different to the Nautricity CoRMaT • Demonstration of defect detection (induced defects) with laboratory trials• Correlate ‘induced defects’ detected with Macro Fibre Composite (MFC) transducers (MFC sensors used with TSD in Nautricity's Hydro-Buoy) and Acoustic Emission (AE) sensors• Demonstrate the reliability and survivability of MFC sensors on the sails With the sea trials, the monitoring of the sails was performed with spot measurements carried out above the water surface, when sails were raised above the water for general inspection; this was an appropriate moment to do the TSD testing. This thus did not necessitate having electronics in a sealed underwater box as with the Nautricity's Hydro-buoy system. Finite Element (FE) modelling of the Aqua Energy sails indicated that the greatest stain (stress) was going to be at the spar (figure 10) due to the hydrostatic differential pressure between the top and bottom wings of the sail. Figure 11 and 12 show the sensor arrangement and locations. A full explanation and description is given in Deliverable D4.3. In the operation of the MFCs, a frequency between 20-50kHz was used and the MFC were used in a full matrix capture mode; that is to say when one MFC was transmitting the guided waves, all the other MFC were in receiving mode. A pulser receiver unitas with Nautricity was used to monitor and control the MFCs. A representative analysis of the data acquired is given in deliverable D4.6 (Sea Trials Final Report). As with the laboratory testing in Italy, AE sensors (along with MFCs) were used for water tank and sea testing in Cadiz on a sail (blade). The AE system (Vallen AMSY-5 system) consisted of VS150-RIC AE sensors (70-400 kHz), preamplifier, processing boards, hydrophone (icListen from OceanSonics and a 24-bit smart hydrophone, frequency range 10Hz to 100kHz) and associated display and recording boards. Also used was an open source remote monitored video camera (OPENRIV); the IP camera used in the Nautricity first sea trials (was damaged in deployment). A fuller description and test programs are available in the deliverable D4.3.In addition to Bresia (Italy) and Cadiz (Spain), some parallel testing to validate the cost-benefit of TSD structural health monitoring system and the reliability of the TSD sensor attachment, encapsulation, along with surface treatment to reduce biofouling and microbiologically induced corrosion was undertaken at Helgoland Westmole in conjunction with the EU FP7 project MARINET. This additional work is also reported in deliverable D4.3. A representative analysis of the data acquired is given in deliverable D4.6 (Sea Trials Final Report).Another important aspect of the work (done in WP4), relates to transducer replacement and maintainability. In this regard a significant number of transducers were detached from the blade (sail) used in the tests in Cadiz (Spain) and replaced with new and/or different sensor and data acquired. While it was intended to carry out this exercise on the Nautricity Hydro-buoy, due to the damage to the hydro-buoy, this work was carried out on the Aqua Energy Solutions AS sail, following an agreed and detailed procedure (see D4.5). This process of a sensor replacement is an important aspect of any maintenance operation. A full description of the sensors, sensor arrangement and pulser receiver unit, etc., is given D4.3 and above, also in the deliverable D4.5. The deliverable D4.5 has the replacement process in detail, step by step with many images at each step. Following the replacement, tests were done in the water tank with the blade (sail). Figure 13 is a representative plot of the data acquired. It is evident from the plots, that the data after replacement is a good ‘copy’ of the pre-replacement plot. The work outlined above in brief and more fully in the deliverables D4.2 D4.3 and D4.5 is compiled together in the ‘Sea Trial Final Report’ i.e. deliverable D4.6 and covers the following tasks: 1. Task 4.1 (Installation of replacement “blade” with embedded sensor): we discuss in D4.2 D4.6 and in the other earlier deliverables mentioned as well as here in brief, the work in respect of DEMO 1, installation at tests on Nautricity Hydrobuoy (CoRMaT) at the EMEC nursery site, Orkney Islands in Scotland, UK2. Task 4.2 (Installation of sensor attached to working “blade”): This work relates to DEMO 2, on Aqua Energy Solutions (AES) sails carried out in Brescia, Italy and in the Cadiz bay, Spain. In this demo in addition to MFC sensors, AE sensors and hydrophones was used and performance determined3. Task 4.3 (Maintenance operation and evaluation of transducer replacement): This work (DEMO 3), explored the replacement of the transducers, to illustrate that in an event if a transducer malfunctions or need to be replaced with another comparable one, the replacement procedure is well defined and data acquired is comparable to the data before the replacement. This work was also done in Cadiz (Spain) with the AES sailsIn summary the TSD system can be operated both in ‘Automatic Periodic Measurements (APM)’ and in ‘Spot Measurement (SM)’ modes. In the first demo, the Nautricity Hydro-buoy was adapted and modified to be used with the TSD system and operated under the APM mode. In the second demo, with the AES system no modifications were done. The first process (demo 1) illustrates the adaption of the TSD to a newly designed tidal energy convertor i.e. built in sensor from the very start, the second demo (demo 2), demonstrates the adaption of the TSD system to a system already up and running i.e. can be retro-fitted. Demo 3, is complimentary to Demo 2, it illustrated that the replacements of sensors can be done as required and yet maintain the compatibility with the ‘old’ system before the replacement for whatever reason. Analysis/presentation of the data: Hitherto, while we have discussed here and in deliverables D4.2 4.3 and 4.5 the ‘hardware’ of the TSD system and with step by step images and instructions that guided one through the installation, replacement of sensors etc., not much detail was given to the software used in the trials. The first version of the TidalSense Demo software was coded in LabView and was used during the internal tests to validate the connectivity of all electronic devices, the final version of TidalSense Demo software written in C# programming language is primarily based on the software developed during the TidalSense project. The TidalSense Demo software is equipped with signal processing routines and it presents automated defect detection and classification. During the project, in addition to hardware validation the software too was validated. The software uses Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) with the ultimate goal of automated defect detection capability. This requires training of ANN and thus defected and non-defected platforms (samples) were used. It should also be noted that apart from the condition monitoring nature, the integrated software is responsible of presenting data acquired from various sensors for monitoring the flow, hydrodynamics, environment, rotations, oscillations, and speed of a given device. The Graphical User Interface (GUI) that is used to control the system and presenting the data from the various sensors was described during the Deliverable 2.3 (Integrated Tidal Sense Validation tools) and a screenshot of the monitoring tab and data is shown in figure 14 and 15 respectively.The TidalSense Demo software can be represented by the block diagram shown in figure 16 below and appropriate algorithms developed for each block. At the heart of the software is the ANN. The validation of the ANN was performed with data obtained during the two demo trials of the project. During the CoRMaT sea trials two regions of the hydro-buoy were suspected to be defective, and the analysis of the ‘Manual’ Guided Wave data with the ANN after training, good agreement with the GW data analysis was seen. Specifically, it was shown that the defect detection accuracy was calculated in the region tested to be 43%-64%, which verifies the dependency of the network to the correct interpretation of the data acquired during the experiment. The software was also validated with the data obtained during the demo trial on the Aqua Energy system. The ANN network was trained with non-defected data and the testing was performed with both ‘defected’ and ‘non- defected’ data. Initial defect detection accuracy was low; this is attributed to the absence of a large amount of training data. Subsequently, with normalised cross-correlation with signals acquired from sails subjected to stress, revealed that the network is capable of providing information of the structural condition of the Aqua Energy sail. Specifically, it was shown that the careful correlation between the signals acquired by specific groups of sensors allowed the network to identify regions affected by higher structural stresses. Finally, the validation of the neural network was also performed with data acquired from work carried out after replacement of sensors. The results from all the tests lead to the conclusion that the neural networks (ANN) is capable of identifying differences prior to and post replacement of the sensor. This behaviour was observed for all the conditions tested, i.e. with measurements acquired on air, underwater and when the sail was in a wet condition. Additionally, it was shown that the neural network is capable of identifying differences on the signals acquired by the sensors under different surrounding environments (different scenarios) leading to the early diagnosis of situations that are indicative of system’s malfunctions.In conclusion the work carried out in WP4, which may be considered as leading to the main outcome and objective of this project, can be regarded as been successfully completed. Another S&T result which while not being a result from one of the main objectives of this project, is nevertheless still an important result to bear in mind when applying for installation permission for Tidal Turbines from local and governmental bodies. In Task/D1.5 (Acoustic disturbances generation and effects on marine life), we determine what the impact of the technology developed in TidalSense Demo, i.e. the additional noise contribution has on marine life.In this analysis three methodologies (See deliverable D1.5 resubmission) were explored. For the first approach based on the maximum energy (electrical power) supplied to the MFCs, the noise level ‘Sound Pressure Level, SPL’ (average over the full time) at a distance of 7m was calculated at 42.20dB. From the second method based on the un-damped impedance and the voltage RMS of exciting signal, the calculated SPL value under the same conditions was 32.16dB. In the third case which was based on an impedance of the bonded MFC with a resistive component of 2000 Ohms (a typical case), the SPL figure was even lower at 28.188dB. From these noise figures which were calculated using a typical MFC operational frequency of 40 KHz, the noise level will be undetectable for most marine life, with possible exception of the Toothed Whale (figure17). More details of the above can be found in the re-submitted deliverable D1.5 version 2.In conclusion the impact of the additional noise of the TSD system on marine life is negligible, the noise from the TidalSense Demo system (TSD) is typically as low as 28.188dB and as such the noise level will be undetectable for most marine life, with possible exception of the Toothed Whale.This completes the main S&T results, further and fuller description is available in the deliverables mentioned here.Potential Impact:The Tidal Energy Conversion (TEC) technology has not yet developed to the extent that the Wind Energy has and as such the TEC technology market is still in the pre-commercial stage of its development. This recognition has enabled us to bear in mind that the TSD system developed in this project needs to be very versatile and adaptable to the specific requirements of each individual customer. This enables us to get in at the forefront of this developing technology.The potential impacts are vast and far reaching. We are in a good position having had successful demonstrations to target: • Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs); please a listing of OEMs in Annex 1 (D5.1)• Utilities and project developers• Maintenance contractorsAs part of this strategy we have identified a number of OEM companies that manufacture blades using composites or have some structural elements from composites (Table 1). Communication channels have been opened with these companies in order to obtain more information and discuss our TSD system and how the TSD will be applicable to them and the cost-benefit that will arise buy using our system etc. Thus one clear impact it (TSD system) brings is the Cost-benefit to operators and owners who employ our CMS.In the manufacture of TEC convertors, even with the big industrial players (Siemens in MCT, Alstom in Clean Current, Andritz in Hammerfest Strom, Rolls-Royce in TGL) the normal value chain of the design of a TEC includes an external expert in composites that take care of the detailed design and manufacturing of the turbine blades, based on a preliminary design and specifications from the OEM company design team. This makes the tidal blade manufacturers as opposed to complete TEC systems an important set of potential clients for our TSD systems. As a result the TSD project team have approached the key companies shown in Table 2 and the outcome of this is reported in D1.8 (Industrial applications)/ Task1.7. These companies also present an important bridge with other industrial applications of TSD (different from TECs, T1.8) thus and can become important partners for the industrial marketing of TSD system as they could offer to introduce our TSD system to their clients as a value added service. The strategy is also to contact utilities and project developers. This is the second impact that our TSD system brings to ourselves, utilities and project developers; it opens the door for developers to adapt our TSD system.The TEC systems as with any other system need maintenance. In tidal energy, installation, maintenance and operation are carried out by joint ventures between two or more agents, mixing utilities, the OEM acting as project developer, a local development agency or consortium and public authorities or investment actors. The third impact is that maintenance companies and other stake holders can utilise our TSD system and this gives us a wider market.Hitherto we have focused on the routes of exploitation of the TSD system in Tidal Energy Convertors (TEC). However, the TSD system can be demonstrated to have many useful applications beyond its use in the inspection of TEC devices. Any industry which by its nature contains inaccessible but critical components can be considered a possible parallel market. A good example of this is Oil and Gas sector where there are a lot of critical pipes and valves either buried underground or deep in the sea. The costs of reaching these pipes can be significant, especially when specialist equipment / personnel are involved such as remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and divers. It can also be very expensive to complete repairs and a clean-up operation if a critical component fails and oil or gas leaks into the environment. If a component failure causes a large spill, it can be extremely costly and dangerous to human life and ecosystems. It could also be applied to critical wire cables used as support for heavy structures such as bridges. These wires are sized to accommodate large loads but are hard to inspect for stress failures and other problems. This is an area where monitoring can be especially useful, as these are often vital parts of a structure that are visually inspected on a regular basis, but due to the structure’s make-up may not be totally visible for inspection. In these critical areas monitoring with our TSD system would give a further safety net for large structure supports. This is the fourth potential impact.There of course other potential impacts:• Employment in research and in manufacturing of TSD CMS systems• Wider employment opportunities in TEC manufacturing and service (maintenance) sector• Wider use of the TEC CMS technology in non-energy but composite industryWith regard to exploitation, Table 3 is an overview of the exploitable IPR.By engaging and collaborating with Nautricity and Aqua Energy Solutions (two companies at the heart of the tidal energy exploration) on the field testing we have already clearly opened up the possibility of exploiting the TSD system on a commercial basis (this may require some further refinements that will allow the TSD system to be at high enough Technology Readiness Level (TRL) for commercialisation). In addition to Nautricity and Aqua Energy Solutions, The TidalSense Demo partners were able to carry out testing at the MaRINet (FP7 project) testing facilities in the North Sea (Helgoland, Westmole) through the involvement of Fraunhofer IWES, opening up further possibilities for exploitation of the TSD condition monitoring system. From these collaborative work, it is clear the foundation for commercial exploitation has been laid. In respect of dissemination a number of activities took place and to facilitate the dissemination (in the future) the consortium produced a video clip recording three important events:• First Trial (Demo 1): Trials associated with Nautricity's Tidal Turbine in Scotland (Orkney Islands) where the APM strategy and the full TSD system was demonstrated using the hydro-buoy from Nautricity• Second Trial (Demo 2): Demonstrating the SM strategy both in the laboratory and underwater. This work was carried out using one the sails (blades) from AquaEnergy Solutions in Italy (Brescia) and other in Spain (Cadiz) • Third Trial (Demo 3): This work was complimentary to Demo 2 and was carried out in Spain (Cadiz) using the sail from AquaEnergy , focussing on key aspects of industrial designThe video clips illustrate aspects of the TSD system demonstrating its capability to detect defects in ‘real components/systems’. The Video clip also shows recording of the additional post processed data using Acoustic Emission, AE (figure 18a) and as a short interview/discussion with key personnel from the partners (figure 18b, c and d) The video clips demonstrate the TSD system’s potential in monitoring elements associated with the tidal energy convertors (TEC); in this regard it has been demonstrated by monitoring two very different TECs with two methodologies (APM and SM). The consortium also held a number of dissemination activities, in Table 4 we give a brief summary of the activity undertaken (place, conference name etc.).In addition to the above main activities, the consortium partners attended a number of other conferences and meetings where they were able to promote the TidalSense Demo project; these were:• Expoenergética 2012, III Business Meeting on Environment and Energy. Valencia(SPAIN) 29th February- 2nd March 2012. (EnerOcean)• Oceanology 2012. 11 - 13 March 2012. London, ExCeL London. InnotecUK andEnerOcean• RENREN workshop. “Transferability best practice example in the field Offshore wind energy”, September 21th, 2012.City hall in Husum , (EnerOcean)• Husum WindEnergy 2012 (running from 18 – 22 September 2012) (EnerOcean).• AWTEC.- Asia Wind and Tidal Conference. Jeju Island, Korea, November 27th-30th,2012 ( Nautricity)• All Energy (Aberdeen, May 2013) (ITPower).• EWTEC 2013, 2-5 Sep 2013, Aalborg, Denmark, ( Nautricity)• EOF “Encuentro Oceanografía Fisica”, November 2012, (UCA) • 4as Jornadas Técnicas “EL MAR Y LAS ENERGÍAS RENOVABLES. Asociación de Ingenieros Navales y Oceánicos de España , Cádiz June 27th-28th 2013. Miguel Bruno (UCA) participated in the round table where the TSD project was highlighted.• WEB briefing for SME Call fp7-2013 Demo . Nico Avdelidis, InnotecUK• NFR info day, Stavanger University, EnerOcean and AQUAEnergy. 28-10.2013Furthermore our project was cited in:• IEA OES report 2012 and 2013• http://www.ocean-energy-systems.org/country-info/spain/The project was also cited in several presentations by the partners. Here is a collection of the presentations (for detail of material, please see D5.5): 1. InnotecUK:http://www.offshorecenter.dk/filer/files/Project/subsea/Conference/Underwater_robots_Tariq.pdf2. EnerOcean: http://www.b2match.eu/b2benvironmentenergy2012/participants/105 and https://www.google.es/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=38&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CHUQFjAHOB4&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.marine-renewables-news.com%2Fdocuments%2FWP4_Report_on_Scientific_and_technological_situati on_REPORT.pdf&ei=jUssU9LrIIeo0AWSmoFY&usg=AFQjCNF0DFWksIrDhoxe3T7d NVlAKx5Dgg&sig2=a8ojV9AssdViO5RrFR3BSg3. Nautricity:https://www.google.es/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=31&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CC8QFjAAOB4&url=http%3A%2F%media%2Fuploads%2Fevents%2Fpresentations%2Fmar12__plenary_2.pdf&ei=jUssU9LrIIeo0AWSmoFY&usg=AFQjCNFrvOxOF9D4TOqPnMIMwA&sig2=5gN1fJxuGFVjEZ5eiVx2gg4. IWES: http://www.eera-wAnGrUset.eu/lw_resource/datapool/_items/item_707/researcherpresentations.pdf and http://www.forschungsfinder-hessen.de/forschung-stream/kasselAdditionally, the partner websites carried information to the TidalSense Demo project; these are: 1. InnotecUk: http://innotecuk.com/projects/ec-funded-projects/tidalsense-demo/2. EnerOcean: http://enerocean.com/proyectos3. IKH: http://www.iknowhow.com/projects/504. KTU: http://ktu.edu/umi/en/content/tidalsense-demo5. TWI: http://www.twi-global.com/services/research-and-consultancy/public-funded-projects/public-funded-projects-list/?entryid20=18457976. CERETETH : http://ireteth.certh.gr/?p=69467. IWES: http://www.iwes.fraunhofer.de/en/projects/search/laufende/tidalsense-demo.htmlThe project has also appeared in a number of press releases, namely:1. Night of the Researchers (UCA): http://www.puertorealweb.es/spip2/IMG/doc/16septDossierparaprensa_I_Noche_de_los_Investigadores.doc2. Horizon 2020: Sensors to bring down the cost of tidal energy: http://horizon-magazine.eu/article/sensors-bring-down-cost-tidal-energy_en.html3. EU-FUNDED PROJECT TESTS TIDAL CONVERSION DEVICES: 27/11/2013: http://setis.ec.europa.eu/energy-research/content/eu-funded-project-tests-tidal-conversion-devices4. Science World Report : http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/10759/20131107/immense-tidal-energy-to-become-more-economical-with-the-help-of-sensors.htm5. Iknowhow: http://www.iknowhow.com/news/906. Nardoni: Energia delle maree: UE finanzia progetto di trasformazione energetica: http://www.italiaoggi.it/news/dettaglio_news.asp?id=201311141045121242&chkAgenzie=OGGIEUROPA&sez=news&testo=&titolo=Energia%20delle%20maree:%20UE%20finanzia%20progetto%20di%20trasformazione%20energeticaIt is clear from this enormous amount of dissemination, in the course of only two years, the consortium partners have been very active.Finally dissemination was also undertaken by the use of Wikipedia, several versions of Wiki pages were produced. The project website http://www.tidalsensedemo.eu/ has a link to the project Wikipage: http://www.ndtwiki.com/index.php/SHM_of_Composite_in_tidal_energy_converters:_TidalsenseDEMO. An extract from the ‘ndtwiki’ is shown below:Validation of the detection on real tidal devices componentsThe guided waves technology to detect defects in tidal devices has been tested in two devices components by a consortium of SMEs and supporting research centres working in the project TidalsenseDEMO:- Hydrobuoy mooring system developed by Nautricity Limited. A buoyancy and lift tension creating hydrofoil made mainly of composite (GFRP) materials. - Aqua Energy Solutions sails. This device tries to cover a large swept area by securing a high number of composite made sails attached to two wires moving on a elongated loop and that transfer power to a generator at one of the ends of this loops.Two implementation strategies were applied in two demonstration over those real elements: Automatic periodic Reading/Measurements Strategy: A permanent installation of transducers and interfacing electronics in the tidal device that allows an automatic periodic reading of the sensors. This strategy allows to perform remote condition monitoring of the critical or more expensive composite material elements. Spot Measurements (SM) strategy: Permanent installation of the transducer in the critical components that allows the user to perform measurements during maintenance interventions/visits to the tidal device. Allow the user to forecast the replacement of the element in a future intervention, or immediately in the current visit to the machine, if significant damage is detected. The maintainability of the structural health monitoring system was demonstrated by the study of correlation after a transducer replacement on a working element.TidalSense Demo is a Seventh Framework Programme project, funded under Research for the Benefits of SMEs framework. The TidalSense Demo project is a Demonstration Action under the FP7 "Capacities" programme with Grant Agreement no. 286989. This EU programme is managed by the Research Executive Agency REA in Brussels, on behalf of the European Commission, http://ec.europa.eu/research/rea/FP7/2007_2013As is evident from this and D5.1 D5.4 D5.5 and D5.6 the consortium has been very active in promoting the TidalSense Demo project to the wider Ocean Energy players and also to potential non-energy customers.List of Websites:http://www.tidalsensedemo.eu Related documents final1-tsd-final-report-figures-and-tables-for-s-and-t-and-potential-impact-sections.pdf
