Biplane-rotor Wells turbine: The influence of solidity, presence of guide vanes and comparison with other configurations

F.J.F. Morais, A.A.D. Carrelhas and L.M.C. Gato

Energy, 2023, vol. 276, issue C

Abstract: The oscillating water column (OWC) device is one of the most reliable wave energy converters. The air turbine generator uses the pressure difference between the air chamber and the atmosphere to generate electricity. The design of OWC devices requires simultaneous consideration of the air turbine and its influence on the hydrodynamic process of wave energy absorption. Biplane-rotor Wells turbines are suitable for applications requiring high-pressure heads and have been investigated in only a few studies. This paper concerns the design and experimental testing of a high-solidity biplane Wells turbine with and without guide vanes. Turbines with a rotor diameter of 0.590m were tested on a unidirectional flow test rig to investigate turbine performance and flow characteristics. Considering a numerical stochastic Gaussian approach, data from the literature was used to compare the performance of the tested Wells turbines to other Wells turbine configurations under irregular bidirectional variable flow. The results show that introducing intermediate guide vanes on a 0.96 solidity biplane Wells turbine increased the peak efficiency of the turbine by 6% while reducing the damping of the OWC. The comparative analysis of different turbine configurations in variable flow shows that the high-solidity Wells turbine with guide vanes does not have the highest instantaneous nor the average peak efficiency. However, it can produce higher output power. In addition, the rotor diameter and rotational speed are lower than the lower solidity turbines, which provide similar damping.

Keywords: Wave energy; Oscillating water column; Air turbine; Wells turbine; Biplane turbine; Guide vanes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:276:y:2023:i:c:s0360544223009088

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2023.127514

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