Numerical study on unsteady performance of a Wells turbine under irregular wave conditions

Ru Wang, Ying Cui, Zhen Liu, Boyang Li and Yongbo Zhang

Renewable Energy, 2024, vol. 225, issue C

Abstract: The axial-flow Wells turbine is one of the most widely used power take-off unit for oscillating water column wave energy converter. Despite advancements, many converters still encounter challenges such as intermittent power output and difficulty in self-starting for air turbines. The reason behind this could be attributed to the fact that previous studies primarily focused on examining the unsteady performance of air turbines at a fixed rotation speed or under ideal sinusoidal airflow conditions. To predict the unsteady responses under irregular wave conditions, a transient free-running numerical model of a Wells turbine was developed in the present work. Following the validation of experimental results, the mechanism of hysteresis was further investigated by analyzing performance parameters, time-varying details of 3D flow field, and dependence factors. Furthermore, effects of significant wave height and peak spectral period on the ability to self-start were studied.

Keywords: OWC wave energy converter; Wells turbine; Irregular wave condition; Unsteady numerical analysis; Free-running mode (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148124003203
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:225:y:2024:i:c:s0960148124003203

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2024.120255

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().