Hysteretic Characteristics of Wells Turbine in Reciprocating Flow

Abstract

In order to clarify the hysteretic characteristics of Wells turbine for wave power generotor, an experimental investigation has been made by use of a newly devised turbine equipment in which a sinusoidal flow condition is simulated. The results have shown that the hysteresis is more sensitive to solidity and blade thickness and less sensitive to Reynolds number and blade surface roughness. By means of flow visualization, it is found that the hysteresis is due to different behavior of wake between an accelerating flow and a decelerating flow.