• Journal of Advanced Research in Ocean Engineering
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.73-84
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• 2015

The turbine is one of the most important components in the tidal current power device which can convert current flow to rotational energy. Generally, a tidal turbine has two or three blades that are subjected to hydrodynamic loads. The blades are continuously deformed by various incoming flow velocities. Depending on the velocities, blade size, and material, the deformation rates would be different that could affect the power production rate as well as turbine performance. Surely deformed blades would decrease the performance of the turbine. However, most studies of turbine performance have been carried out without considerations on the blade deformation. The power estimation and analysis should consider the deformed blade shape for accurate output power. This paper describes a fluid-structure interaction (FSI) analysis conducted using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and the finite element method (FEM) to estimate practical turbine performance. The loss of turbine efficiency was calculated for a deformed blade that decreased by 2.2% with maximum deformation of 216mm at the blade tip. As a result of the study, principal causes of power loss induced by blade deformation were analysed and summarised in this paper.

• Journal of KSNVE
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• v.6 no.5
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• pp.661-669
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• 1996

Proposed is an aero-acoustic performance prediction method of axial fan. The fan aerodynamic performance is predicted by combining pitch-averaged quasi 3-D flow analysis with pressure loss models for blade boundary layer and wake, secondary flow, endwall boundary layer and tip leakage flows. Fan noise is assumed to be radiated as dipole distribution type, and its generation is assumed to be mainly due to the vortex street shed from blade trailing edge. The fluctuating pressure and lift on the blade surface are analyzed by incorporating the wake vortex stree shed from blade trailing edge. The fluctuating pressure and lift on the blade surface are analyzed by incorporating the wake vortex street model with thin airfoil theory. The aero-acoustic performance prediction results by the present method are in good agreement with the measured results of several axial fans. With the present prediction method, parametric studies are carried out to investigate the effects of blade chord length and spacing on the efficiency and the noise level of fan. In the case of lightly loaded fan, both efficiency improvement and noise reduction can be achieved by decreasing chord length or by increasing blade specing. However, when fan is designed at highly loaded condition, the noise reduction by increasing blade spacing penalizes the attaninable efficiency of fan.

• Transactions of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering
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• v.22 no.12
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• pp.1164-1171
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• 2012

Recently, researches related to the green energy generation systems have increased significantly. Among them wind turbines are the most spread practical green energy generation systems. In order to enhance the power generation capacity of the wind turbine blade, the length of wind turbine blade has increased. It might cause undesirable excessive dynamic loads. Therefore dynamic characteristics of a wind turbine blade system should be identified for a safe design of the system. In this study, the equations of motion of a wind turbine blade system undergoing gravitational force are derived considering wind force and pitch angle. Effects of wind speed, variation of pitch angle of the wind turbine blade, rotating speed, and the blade length on its stability characteristics are investigated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
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• 2009.04a
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• pp.68-75
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• 2009

In this study, aeroelastic response analyses have been conducted for a 3D wind turbine blade model. Advanced computational analysis system based on computational fluid dynamics(CFD) and computational structural dynamics(CSD) has been developed in order to investigate detailed dynamic responsed of wind turbine blade. Vibration analyses of rotating wind-turbine blade have been conducted using the general nonlinear finite element program, SAMCEF (Ver.6.3). Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS)equations with spalart-allmaras turbulence model are solved for unsteady flow problems of the rotating turbine blade model. A fully implicit time marching scheme based on the Newmark direct integration method is used for computing the coupled aeroelastic governing equations of the 3D turbine blade for fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problems. Detailed dynamic responses and instantaneous Mach contour on the blade surfaces considering flow-separation effects are presented to show the multi-physical phenomenon of the rotating wind-turbine blade model.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.2 no.3
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• pp.197-205
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• 2009

Since large-scale commercial wind turbine generator systems such as MW-class wind turbines are becoming widely operated, the vibration and distortion of the blade are becoming larger and larger. Therefore the soft structure design instead of the solid-design is one of the important concepts to reduce the structural load and the cost of the wind turbine rotors. The objectives of the study are development of the fluid-structure coupled analysis code and evaluation of soft rotor-blade design to reduce the unsteady structural blade load. In this paper, fluid-structure coupled analysis for the HAWT rotor blade is performed by free wake panel method coupled with hinge-spring blade model for the flapwise blade motion. In the model, the continuous deflection of the rotor blade is represented by flapping angle of the hinge with one degree of freedom. The calculation results are evaluated by comparison with the database of the NREL unsteady aerodynamic experiment. In the analysis the unsteady flapwise moments in yawed inflow conditions are compared for the blades with different flapwise eigen frequencies.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.738-744
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• 2011

The reliability of blade root fixing section is required to endure the centrifugal force and vibration stress for the last stage blade of steam turbine in thermal power plant. Most of the domestic steam turbine last stage blades have finger type roots. The finger type blade is very complex, so the inspection had been performed only on the exposed fixing pin cross-section area due to the difficulty of inspection. But the centrifugal force and vibration stress are also applied at the blade root finger and the crack generates, so the inspection method for finger section is necessary. For the inspection of root finger, inspection points were decided by simulating ultra-sonic path with 3D modeling, curve-shape probe and fixing jig were invented, and the characteristics analysis method of ultrasonic reflection signal and defect signal disposition method were invented. This invented method was actually executed at site and prevented the blade liberation failure by detecting the cracks at the fingers. Also, the same type blades of the other turbines were inspected periodically and the reliability of the turbine increased.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.30 no.9
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• pp.969-975
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• 2013

As energy shortage is getting more serious, wind energy source is more promoted around the world. Blade is a key component of wind turbine. Local breakages and/or contamination in the blade bring degradation in aerodynamic efficiency and life-time. However, it is not easy and even dangerous for human workers to access the blade for inspection and maintenance since its size is huge and located at high mountains and rough sea, which are windy places. This paper deals with a novel moving mechanism that efficiently carries human workers or robots to the wind turbine blade. The proposed mechanism utilizes flexible tube with pressurized air that rolls and climbs over the blade surface. So, the tube naturally adapts the changing surface of the blade and acts no harm to it. This paper discusses about its concept, detail design, and advantages. The feasibility of the proposed mechanism is proved through experiments prototype.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.149-154
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• 2013

This study was performed to develop a high efficiency submersible axial pump for concentration wastewater treatment. To do this, we simulated the effect of some parameters such as the axial twist angle of a blade(${\beta}$), the radial twist angle of a blade(${\alpha}$) and the length of a blade (l) on pump efficiency using commercial code, ANSYS CFX and BladeGen. The results showed that the axial twist angle of a blade(${\beta}$) was the most sensible parameter on the pump efficiency. And the pump efficiency had a maximum at ${\beta}=20^{\circ}$, ${\alpha}=110^{\circ}$ and l=240 mm.

• Proceedings of the Korean Reliability Society Conference
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• 2011.06a
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• pp.107-113
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• 2011

The windshield wiper consists of 4 parts: a blade, an arm, a linkage and a motor. The wiper blade makes contact with the windshield and is designed to be operated normally at an angle of 30~50 degrees to the front glass. If the contact pressure between the wiper blade and windshield surface is too high, noise and wear of the rubber will result. On the other hand, if the contact pressure is too low, the performance will do badly, since foreign substances such as dust and stains will not be removed well. The pressure and friction of the wiper blade has a great influence on its effectiveness in cleaning the front window. This is due to the contact of the rubber with the window. This paper presents the dynamic analysis method to estimate the performance of the flat type blade of the wiper system. The blade has a nonlinear characteristic since the rubber is an incompressible hyper-elastic and visco-elastic material. Thus, Structural dynamic analysis using a complex contact model for the blade is performed to find the characteristics of the blade. The flexible multi-body dynamic model is verified by the comparison between test and analysis result. Also, the optimization using the central composite design table is performed.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.57-63
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• 2008

The last stage blade of the low pressure steam turbine remarkably affects turbine plant performance and availability Turbine manufacturers are continuously developing the low pressure last stage blades using the latest technology in order to achieve higher reliability and improved efficiency. They tend to lengthen the last stage blade and apply shrouds at the blades to enhance turbine efficiency. The long blades increase the blade tip circumferential speed and water droplet erosion at shroud is anticipated. Parts of integral shrouds of the last stage 40 inch blades were cracked and liberated recently in a combined cycle power plant. In order to analyze the root cause of the last stage blades shroud cracks, we investigated operational history, heat balance diagram, damaged blades shape, fractured surface of damaged blades, microstructure examination and design data, etc. Root causes were analyzed as the improper material and design of the blade. Notches induced by erosion and blade shroud were failed eventually by high cycle fatigue. This paper describes the root cause analysis and countermeasures for the steam turbine last stage blade shroud cracks of the combined cycle power plant.