Performance enhancement of Wells turbine: Combined radiused edge blade tip, static extended trailing edge, and variable thickness modifications

P. Madhan Kumar, Paresh Halder, Afzal Husain, Abdus Samad*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The Wells turbine is used in conjunction with an oscillating water column to harvest wave energy. It is a self-rectifying axial flow reaction turbine which consists of symmetrical blades aligned normal to the incoming flow. A narrow operating range due to flow separation restricts the power extracting capability of the turbine at a higher flow rate. To improve its performance, a turbine blade with combined design modifications such as radiused edge blade (REB) tip, static extended trailing edge (SETE) and variable thickness blade (VTB) was investigated through CFD analysis. Three-dimensional time independent Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations were solved in a commercial solver to obtain the turbine performance, which was given by non-dimensional torque, pressure drop and efficiency. The combined REB tip, SETE and VTB modifications enhanced relative average turbine power output by 97% and the relative operating range by 22%. However, the average efficiency is decreased by 7.7%, because of the increased pressure drop.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)47-58
Number of pages12
JournalOcean Engineering
Volume185
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 1 2019

Keywords

  • Radiused edge tip blade
  • Static extended trailing edge
  • Wave energy
  • Wells turbine

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Engineering
  • Ocean Engineering

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