Harnessing marine current energy with tethered submerged systems: Experimental tests and numerical model analysis of an innovative concept

An innovative system concept in marine/river current technologies is presented. A floating submerged body is used as a support to turbines and a casing for electrical and control systems. A series of experimental test has been performed in a towing tank on a test model using already characterized turbines, in order to evaluate its behavior in response to current actions. The present paper is aimed to report the results of such tests and to obtain a simple dynamic model to compare with experimental results.