Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : Mechanical Engineering Congress,Japan
Date : September 11, 2016 - September 14, 2016
There is a wave energy conversion with Oscillating Water Column (OWC) which utilizes renewable energy. A Wells Turbine is a secondary conversion device for the wave energy conversion with OWC. There are some study in order to improve the stall characteristics of Wells Turbine. According to the previous study, a Well turbine with 3-dimensional blade (3D) which the thickness from the hub to the tip increases linearly was proposed and it was found experimentally that the performance was superior to the turbine with 2-dimensional blade. Therefore, in this study, the flow pattern of the 3-dimentional blades on the turbine characteristics of Wells turbine has been investigated numerically by CFD analysis. There are two types of the proposed blade shape which the chord length is constant and the blade thickness changes linearly from the hub to the tip. One blade profiles are NACA0015 at the hub, NACA0020 at the mean radius and NACA0025 at the tip. The other blade profiles are NACA0025 at the hub, NACA0020 at the mean radius and NACA0015 at the tip. As a result, it was found that the pressure distribution at the leading edge on the pressure surface of the blade affects the peak efficiency and the flow pattern at the trailing edge on the suction surface has an effect on the stall characteristic.
