System characteristics of automated pumping systems may change due to wear, aging of piping, and accumulation of deposits in the system and/or due to configuration changes. Such changes might result in conflicts between the controlling algorithms and the actual system requirements for each particular case. The said mismatch between the actual physical system and the software controlling it, may result in inefficient operation of the pump which may even lead to total system failures (overpressurization of instrumentation and sensing elements etc.) due to temporary malfunctioning of the system components or permanent damages incurred by them during operating under unsuitable conditions. It is intended in this study to design and construct an experimental automated pump bench with operational components (mechanical, electronical and instrumentation etc.), serving in a system introducing multiple geometric heads and its controlling and monitoring software in order to visualize effects of the above-mentioned cases for education and training purposes. System characteristics data acquisition module (system test module) provides the means of recognizing new pump and system characteristics, provided that they were changed due to some reason (throttled valve, changed pump speed, changed flowrate or elevation of discharge etc.). Then the pump operation module enables users to make comparative judgments by observing the effects of the abovementioned changes. Above-mentioned testing sequence and monitoring of changing physical quantities were achieved by employing four pressure transducers, a custom made DC motor operated -throttling valve with position feedback which was designed and constructed specifically for this study and a variable frequency drive (VFD) which were all connected to a custom made Main Control Circuit (MCC) Board.

The development of a numeric simulation for predicting the performance of an Ocean Current Energy Conversion System is presented in this thesis along with a control system development using a PID controller for the achievement of specified rotational velocity set-points. In the beginning, this numeric model is implemented in MATLAB/Simulink® and it is used to predict the performance of a three phase squirrel single-cage type induction motor/generator in two different cases. The first case is a small 3 meter rotor diameter, 20 kW ocean current turbine with fixed pitch blades, and the second case a 20 meter, 720 kW ocean current turbine with variable pitch blades. Furthermore, the second case is also used for the development of a Voltage Source Variable Frequency Drive for the induction motor/generator. Comparison among the Variable Frequency Drive and a simplified model is applied. Finally, the simulation is also used to estimate the average electric power generation from the 720 kW Ocean Current Energy Conversion System which consists of an induction generator and an ocean current turbine connected with a shaft which modeled as a mechanical vibration system.