TY - JOUR
T1 - Performance enhancement of Wells turbine
T2 - Combined radiused edge blade tip, static extended trailing edge, and variable thickness modifications
AU - Kumar, P. Madhan
AU - Halder, Paresh
AU - Husain, Afzal
AU - Samad, Abdus
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2019/8/1
Y1 - 2019/8/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Radiused edge tip blade
KW - Static extended trailing edge
KW - Wave energy
KW - Wells turbine
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U2 - 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2019.05.041
DO - 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2019.05.041
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85067053244
VL - 185
SP - 47
EP - 58
JO - Ocean Engineering
JF - Ocean Engineering
SN - 0029-8018
ER -