• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.150-160
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• 2011

This study focuses on the Achard turbine, a vertical axis, cross-flow, marine current turbine module. Similar modules can be superposed to form towers. A marine or river hydropower farm consists of a cluster of barges, each gathering several parallel rows of towers, running in stabilized current. Two-dimensional numerical modelling is performed in a horizontal cross-section of all towers, using FLUENT and COMSOL Multiphysics. Numerical models validation with experimental results is performed through the velocity distribution, depicted by Acoustic Doppler Velocimetry, in the wake of the middle turbine within a farm model. As long as the numerical flow in the wake fits the experiments, the numerical results for the power coefficient (turbine efficiency) are trustworthy. The overall farm efficiency, with respect to the spatial arrangement of the towers, was depicted by 2D modelling of the unsteady flow inside the farm, using COMSOL Multiphysics. Rows of overlapping parallel towers ensure the increase of global efficiency of the farm.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.117-121
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• 2008

The effect of tip clearance on the performance of a supersonic impulse turbine was investigated experimentally. Test was performed using high pressure air in wide ranges of pressure ratio and rotational speeds. Test revealed that efficiency gradient of the subject turbine at a reference test point was a very low value of 0.05. Turbine efficiency was varied non-linearly with respect to tip clearance. It has been found that efficiency gradient is proportional to the cube of rotational speed at a fixed turbine pressure ratio. It also has been found that efficiency gradient shows its minimum at a reference test pressure ratio irrespective of rotational speeds.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.8
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• pp.1154-1164
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• 2002

Losses on the turbine consist of the mechanical loss, tip clearance loss, secondary flow loss and blade profile loss etc.,. More than 60 % of total losses on the turbine is generated by the two latter loss mechanisms. These losses are directly related with the reduction of turbine efficiency. In order to provide a new design methodology for reducing losses and increasing turbine efficiency, a two-dimensional axial-type turbine blade shape is modified by the optimization process with two-dimensional compressible flow analysis codes, which are validated by the experimental results on the VKI turbine blade. A turbine blade profile is selected at the mean radius of turbine rotor using on a heavy duty gas turbine, and optimized at the operating condition. Shape parameters, which are employed to change the blade shape, are applied as design variables in the optimization process. Aerodynamic, mechanical and geometric constraints are imposed to ensure that the optimized profile meets all engineering restrict conditions. The objective function is the pitchwise area averaged total pressure at the 30% axial chord downstream from the trailing edge. 13 design variables are chosen for blade shape modification. A 10.8 % reduction of total pressure loss on the turbine rotor is achieved by this process, which is same as a more than 1% total-to-total efficiency increase. The computed results are compared with those using 11 design variables, and show that optimized results depend heavily on the accuracy of blade design.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.197-204
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• 2007

Effect of rotor tip geometry on the performance of supersonic impulse turbine was investigated experimentally. Using the shrouded supersonic impulse turbine of the 30ton class liquid rocket engine turbopump as a base model, the measured performance of de-shrouded rotor was compared. The effect of nozzle-rotor overlap also has been investigated. It has been found that the magnitude of turbine efficiency is largely affected by the existence of the rotor shroud. However, measured efficiency sensitivity of the de-shrouded supersonic impulse turbine with respect to turbine tip clearance was relatively smaller than that of high performance reaction turbine. It also has been found that there exists nozzle-rotor overlap value which results optimum efficiency in supersonic impulse turbine.

• International Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.25-29
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• 2016

This paper highlights the performance of an impulse turbine which is a part of turbopump in a liquid rocket first stage engine. The turbopump, currently under development at Korea Aerospace Research Institute, has an impulse type turbine with 12 nozzles and a single rotor. The impulse turbine can archive high specific power with the low gas flow rates. The supersonic impulse turbine with a single rotor can make a simple structure. High-pressure gases are converted into the dynamic energy with flows through the 12 nozzles and drive the rotor to make the power for the pumps. The turbine test was performed in the high-pressured turbine test facility with air gas instead of burned gas. A hydraulic dynamometer was used to absorb the power from the turbine and control the rotational speed and torque. The test points were at several pressure ratios with 7 different rotational speeds. Results showed the efficiency was highest at the design pressure ratio. The efficiency was insensitive to the pressure ratio variation than the rotational speed. It was a typical characteristic in an impulse turbine.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.193-202
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• 2019

There have been various approaches for efficiency improvement of a Darrieus tidal stream turbine after it was introduced as an alternative of horizontal axis turbines. Among the approaches, the researches on the interaction effect of dual configuration were conducted. In this study, a dual Darrieus turbine with a coupling mechanism was proposed for investigating the interaction effect. Also, the effect of bi-directional tidal stream was analyzed with prototype fabrication, apparatus set-up and experiment conduction in indoor and offshore facilities. As the results of the experiments, the dual turbine in case of counter-rotation and inflow between the turbines improved efficiencies by 9.5% and 11.31%, respectively, as compared to the single turbine. Also, the dual turbine in case of the inflow improved efficiencies by 9.4% and 16.62%, respectively, as compared to that in case of outflow between the turbines which represented the case of 180 degrees change of flow direction after slack water. Therefore, the proposed dual turbine showed the advantage in terms of the efficiency as compared to the single turbine and the effect level of the slack water on the performance of the dual turbine was investigated.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06d
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• pp.715-720
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• 2001

The main reason for applying positive pressure variable clearance packing in fossil power plant is high efficiency and energy saving movement in the government. This study intends to analyze the turbine efficiency through the shaft packing improvement in thermal power plant and makes its comparison to that of the used packing.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.243-254
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• 2011

In the present paper, we focus on the flow computation of a low head Propeller turbine at a wide range of design and off-design operating conditions. First, we will present the results on the efficiency hill chart prediction of the Propeller turbine and discuss the consequences of using non-homologous blade geometries for the CFD simulation. The flow characteristics of the entire turbine will be also investigated and compared with experimental data at different measurement planes. Two operating conditions are selected, the first one at the best efficiency point and the second one at part load condition. At the same time, for the same selected operating points, the numerical results for the entire turbine simulation will be compared with flow simulation with our standard stage calculation approach which includes only guide vane, runner and draft tube geometries.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.5-10
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• 2011

Recently, small hydropower attracts attention because of its renewable, clean and abundant energy resources to develop. Therefore, a tubular type hydro turbine is proposed for small hydropower in this study because the turbine has relatively simple structure and high possibility of applying to small hydropower. The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance characteristics of the turbine by field test. Field test iss conducted using one tubular turbine system as well as serial arrangement system by two tubular turbines taking into consideration of actual operation conditions. The results show that efficiency of test turbine changes considerably by the runner vane angle. Best efficiency of one turbine arrangement is higher than that of two turbine serial arrangement.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.207-214
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• 2015

The preliminary design of a radial inflow turbine using R134a as the working fluid at 5 kW of power for application to ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) is performed to obtain the trends for the efficiency and geometrical dimensions of the turbine. Using input conditions that included a turbine inlet temperature of $25^{\circ}C$, an outlet static pressure of 4.9 bar, and a mass flow rate of 1.16 kg/s, the results of a mean flow analysis show the major dimensions of the turbine, along with an angular velocity of 12,820 rpm. Based on these results, a three-dimensional turbine model is constructed for a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. The flow characteristics inside the turbine, including the volute and nozzle, are investigated using the CFD software ANSYS CFX. For a pertinent number of nozzle guide vanes, ranging from 10 to 15, the turbine efficiency was higher than 80%, with the highest efficiency shown by a nozzle with 15 guide vanes.