Abstract
In this report we have evaluated the risk of disturbance of the seafloor by the Tidalkite of the
company Seaqurrent. Therefore a series of flowtank measurement at the facilities of the University
of Groningen were combined with two different computational fluid dynamics (CFD) studies.
Measured and modelled kite induced shear forces were compared with critical bed-shear stress data
from the literature. All studies showed that the shear forces caused by a moving kite are very low.
Highest shear forces induces by a moving kite (at 25 cm distance) were still 50 times smaller than the
lowest critical bed-shear stress value reported in literature. This implies that if the kite is travelling
horizontally it will not disturb the seafloor.