Experimental test campaign on an innovative device to harness clean energy from tidal and river current.

The main object of this paper is to present the design and the results of an experimental test campaign on an innovative device for the exploitation of marine and river currents. All the work has been carried out at the Department of Aerospace Engineering of the University of Naples ldquoFederico IIrdquo and the test campaign has been first performed in the naval towing tank belonging to Naval Department of same University and then in real condition in Messina Strait between Sicily island and mainland. This location is the only one in Italy suitable as test site with tidal current reaching a maximum speed of 3 m/s. The turbine´s blade was first carefully designed with particular care for the cavitation problems. Two different series of experimental test in naval tanks aimed to optimize the general layout of the device and the tests performed in Messina Strait mainly aimed to confirm the feasibility of the system and to evaluate its response in real operating conditions. The tests have confirmed the good dynamic behavior of the whole system and its feasibility to be scaled up to real scale.