This paper describes the development of a test-rig for demonstration trials of a full-scale turbine in a large towing tank. The activity was part of the EU Horizon 2020 CRIMSON project addressing a 20-kW full-scale module of the RivGen© Power System by ORPC. The device was tested in the Large Calm Water Towing Tank at the Institute of Marine Engineering of the Italian National Research Council.

The test matrix covered the relevant range of turbine operating conditions in a real environment. A methodology integrating CAD and multi-physics digital models was developed to simulate the device set-up, deployment, operation and retrieval, and realize a test-rig for safe and smooth operations. Computational Fluid Dynamics was used to estimate the hydrodynamic loads generated by the turbine, whereas Finite Element Analysis calculations validated the strength requirements of the structure fixing the turbine to the towing carriage and identified harmful conditions during operations.

The design of experiment delivered new knowledge about testing large-scale, fully equipped hydrokinetic turbines in the controlled and repeatable environment of a towing tank. The resulting testing framework can effectively contribute to de-risk the deployment of turbines and other marine renewable energy systems in the real operating environment.