• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.148-154
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• 2008

The Wells turbine rotor consists of several symmetric airfoil blades arranged around a central hub, and the stagger angle is 90 degrees. These characteristics simplify the total construction of OWC type wave energy converters. Although the Wells turbine is simple, the turbine produces a complicated flow field due to the peculiar arrangement of blades, which can rotate in the same direction irrespective of the oscillating airflow. In order to understand these flows, flow visualization is carried out with an oil-film method in the water tunnel. This research aims to analyze the mechanism of the 3-D flows around the turbine with the flow visualization. The flow visualization explained the influence of attack angle, the difference between fan-shaped and rectangular wings, and the sweep angle.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.99-105
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• 2003

This paper presents the effect of rotor geometry on the performance of a small-scale Wells turbine for wave energy conversion. In this study, four kinds the Wells turbine of blade profile were selected from previous studies. The types of blade profile included in the papers are as follows: NACA0020 ; NACA0015; CA9; and HSIM 15-262123-1576. The experimental investigations have been performed for two solidities by testing model under steady flow conditions. The effect of blade profile on the running and starting characteristics under sinusoidal flow conditions have also been investigated by a numerical simulation based on a quasi-steady analysis. In addition, the effect of sweep on the turbine characteristics has been studied for the cases of CA9 and HSIM 15-262123-1576. Based on the evaluation, a suitable choice of these design factors has been suggested. As a result, it seems that a suitable choice of the sweep ratio of 0.35 for the blade profile of the Wells turbine.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Marine Engineers Conference
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• 2001.05a
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• pp.69-74
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• 2001

The Wells turbine has hysteresis characteristics in a reciprocating flow. In this paper, in order to understand unsteady flow characteristics of the Wells turbine, a sinusoidal flow condition is simulated. The flow conditions and hysteresis characteristics, including blade thickness, are investigated over a period of time. The pressure distributions along the blade surface are investigated at mid-span to clarify the cause of the hysteresis. The result has shown that the hysteresis characteristics become more pronounced as blade thickness becomes larger. The occurrence of these characteristics depends on the varying behavior of wakes between an accelerating flow and a develerating flow.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.307-312
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• 2016

The present study reported of the use of special shaped blade to reduce the difference in pressure across the Wells turbine for wave energy conversion. The blade profile was composed of NACA0020 airfoils and trailing edge was notched like chevron. Experiments were performed investigating the influence of trailing edge shape on the turbine performance. Four notch depths were used to investigate the effect of depth of cut on the turbine performance. As results, by placing a notch-cut at the trailing edge of the blade, it was possible to reduce the pressure difference across the turbine without lowering the efficiency. In addition, the pressure difference substantially reduced at a constant rate with the increase of the cut ratio.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.317-321
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• 2015

Many kinds of generation systems have been developed to use ocean energy. Among these, with the use of an oscillating water column (OWC) for power generation is attracting attention. The OWC-type wave power generation system converts wave energy into electricity by operating a generator turbine with the oscillating water level in a column of water. There are two ways to convert wave power into electricity using an OWC. One uses a cross-flow turbine using the water level inside the OWC. The other method uses the flow of air in a Wells turbine, which depends on the water level. An experiment was carried out using a 2-D wave tank in order to minimize the number of empirical tests. The design factors were taken from Koo et al. (2012) and the experimental environment assumed by free surface motion. This paper deals with characteristics of two types of wave energy conversion systems combine with a breakwater. One model uses an air-driven Wells turbine and a cross-flow water turbine. The other type uses a cross-flow water turbine. Wave energy converters with OWCs have mostly been studied using air-driven Wells turbines. The efficiency of the cross-flow turbine was about 15% higher than that of the other model, and the water level of the OWC internal chamber for the cross-flow water turbine and air-driven Wells turbine was less than about 40% lower than the one using only the cross-flow water turbine.

• Journal of the Korean Solar Energy Society
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.55-61
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• 2003

This paper represents the effect of rotor geometry on the performance of a small-scale Wells turbine for wave energy conversion. In this study, four kinds of blade profile were selected from previous studies with regard to the blade profile of the Wells turbine. The experimental investigations have been performed for two solidities by model testing under steady flow conditions, and then the effect of blade profile on the running and starting characteristics under sinusoidal flow conditions have been investigated by a numerical simulation using a quasi-steady analysis. In addition, the effect of sweep on the turbine characteristics has been investigated for the cases of CA9 and HSIM 15-262123-1576. As a result, a suitable choice of these design factors has been suggested.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.23-30
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• 1993

This rape deals with the experimental and theoretical investigations on the aerodynamic performance of the Wells turbine. The two-dimensional cascade theory is used to estimate the thrust and torque of turbine, and finally to yield an efficiency of turbine. The turbine is assumed to rotate with a constant rotational speed in a sinusoidally varying unsteady flow field. Experimental approach is made in a wave simulator, producing a sinusoidally reciprocating air flow corresponding to the wave motion in an Oscillating Water Column(OWC) chamber. Performance data of turbine measured at various operating conditions are analyzed and compared to numerical results in order to understand the overall features of a Wells turbine.

• Proceedings of the Korea Committee for Ocean Resources and Engineering Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.220-224
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• 2004

The present paper deals with the numerical study to analyze the self-starting performance of impulse turbine in a reciprocating air flow generated by sinusoidal motion of wave inside oscillating water column. Result was compared to that of Wells turbine, well-known wave energy conversion device, and showed that the impulse turbine has a superior self-starting ability. More detailed parametric study was performed to demonstrate the effects of moment of inertia of rotor, loading torque, tip clearance and angle of guide vane.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.421-428
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• 2003

The aerodynamic characteristics of the Wells turbine for wave energy conversion have been investigated by the numerical simulation to reproduce hysteretic behaviors. The pressure distributions on the suction surface of the blade were investigated to find out the cause of the hysteretic mechanism. The results have shown that the hysteretic behavior is associated with streamwise vertical flow appearing near the suction surface and become more obvious. as the tip clearance and solidity change. Also it has shown that such phenomena occur due to different behaviors of wakes in the accelerating and decelerating flow process. The CFD analysis shows a good agreement with experimental results.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.11-24
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• 2017

The present work focuses multi-objective optimization of blade sweep for a Wells turbine. The blade-sweep parameters at the mid and the tip sections are selected as design variables. The peak-torque coefficient and the corresponding efficiency are the objective functions, which are maximized. The numerical analysis has been carried out by solving 3D RANS equations based on k-w SST turbulence model. Nine design points are selected within a design space and the simulations are run. Based on the computational results, surrogate-based weighted average models are constructed and the population based multi-objective evolutionary algorithm gave Pareto optimal solutions. The peak-torque coefficient and the corresponding efficiency are enhanced, and the results are analysed using CFD simulations. Two extreme designs in the Pareto solutions show that the peak-torque-coefficient is increased by 28.28% and the corresponding efficiency is decreased by 13.5%. A detailed flow analysis shows the separation phenomena change the turbine performance.