Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Experimental and Computational Aerothermodynamics of Internal Flows Lyon, July 2007

Paper reference : ISAIF8-0011

Impulse Turbine with End Plates for Wave Energy Conversion

Manabu TAKAO
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Matsue National College of Technology 14-4 Nishiikuma-cho, Matsue-shi, Shimane 690-8518, Japan

Toshiaki SETOGUCHI, Shuichi NAGATA and Kazutaka TOYOTA

Institute of Ocean Energy, Saga University 1 Honjo-machi, Saga-shi, Saga 840-8502, Japan

The objective of this paper is to present the effect of end plate on the performances of the impulse turbine for wave energy conversion by experimental investigation. The experiments have been performed by model testing As a under steady flow conditions in the study. And then, the performances of the impulse turbine with end plates have been compared with those of the original impulse turbine, i.e., the impulse turbine without end plate. impulse turbine. result, it is found that the characteristics of the impulse turbine with end plates are superior to those of the original Furthermore, the effects of end plate size and annular plate on the turbine characteristics have been clarified in the study.

Keywords: fluid machinery, natural energy, impulse turbine, end plate, wave energy conversion.

Introduction
Several of the wave energy devices being studied under many wave energy programs in the United Kingdom, Japan, Portugal, India and other countries make use of the principle of an oscillating water column (OWC) [1]. In such wave energy devices, a water column which oscillates due to wave motion is used to drive an oscillating air column which is converted into mechanical energy. The energy conversion from the oscillating air column can be achieved by using a self-rectifying air turbine such as a Wells turbine which was introduced by Dr. A. A. Wells in 1976 [2]. This turbine rotates in a single direction in oscillating airflow and therefore does not require a system of non-return valves. However,

according to previous studies, the Wells turbine has inherent disadvantages: lower efficiency, poorer starting characteristics and higher noise level in comparison with conventional turbines. Recently, in order to develop a high performance self-rectifying air turbine for wave energy conversion, the authors have proposed an impulse turbine with self-pitch-controlled guide vanes and clarified that the turbine can be operated with higher efficiency and lower rotational speed than the Wells turbine. This turbine, however, has a disadvantage of maintenance of pivots on which the guide vanes are rotated automatically in a bi-directional airflow. In order to overcome this drawback, an impulse turbine with fixed guide vanes has been also proposed by the authors [3, 4]. There are many

Manabu TAKAO: Associate Professor

http://www.lmfa.ec-lyon.fr/ISAIF8/

Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Experimental and Computational Aerothermodynamics of Internal Flows

Nomenclature a width of annular plate (m) c width of end plate (m) input coefficient CA CT torque coefficient h height of flow passage (m) chord length of guide vane (m) lg lr chord length of rotor blade (m) Q flow rate (m3/s) reports which describe the performance of the turbine both at starting and running conditions. Regarding an improvement of the turbine, Hyun et al. [5] proposed a special-type impulse turbine having end plates for wave energy conversion in order to minimize the adverse effect of tip clearance of rotor blade. And then, the effectiveness of the end plate was demonstrated by using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD). However, the effect of end plate on the performance of the turbine has not been clarified experimentally to date. The objective of this paper is to present the effect of end plate on the performances of the impulse turbine for wave energy conversion by experimental investigation. The experiments have been performed by model testing under steady flow conditions. And then, the performances of the turbine with end plates have been compared with those of the original impulse turbine, i.e., the turbine without end plate. Moreover, as an additional experiment, the effect of annular plate on the turbine performance was also investigated experimentally.

r mean radius (m) T torque (Nm) U circumferential velocity at r (m/s) v axial flow velocity (m/s) z number of rotor blades Greek letters p total pressure drop across turbine (Pa) density of air angular velocity (rad/s)
2 3 1 7 8 9

10

11

5
PC

12

Experimental Apparatus and Procedure

A schematic view of the test rig is shown in Fig. 1. The test rig consists of a large piston-cylinder (diameter: 1.4m, length: 1.7m), one end of which is followed by a settling chamber. Turbine testing is done in 300 mm diameter test section with bell-mouthed entry/exit at both its ends. The piston can be driven back and forth inside the cylinder by means of three ball-screws through three nuts fixed to the piston. All three screws are driven in unison by a D.C. servo-motor through chain and sprockets. A computer controls the motor, and hence the piston velocity to produce any flow velocity. The test turbine is coupled to a servo-motor/generator through a torque transducer. The motor/generator is electrically controlled such that the turbine shaft angular velocity is held constant at any set value. The overall performance was evaluated by the turbine output torque T, the flow rate Q, the total pressure drop across the turbine p, and the turbine angular velocity . The flow rate through the turbine Q, whether it is inhalation (i.e., flow from atmosphere into the settling chamber) or exhalation (i.e., flow from settling chamber to atmosphere), is calculated

1 2 3 4 5 6

Wind tunnel Piston Ball-screw Servomotor D/A converter Servo-pack

7 Settling chamber 8 Turbine 9 Torque transducer 10 Servomotor-generator 11 Pressure transducer 12 A/D converter

Fig. 1

Test apparatus

by measuring the motion of piston, where the value of Q agrees with that obtained by a Pitot tube survey. Tests were performed with the flow rates up to 0.320 m3/s and the turbine angular velocities up to 314 rad/s. The Reynolds number based on the blade chord was approximately equal to 5 104. The uncertainty of efficiency is about 1%. This uncertainty has been obtained by taking into account the dispersions in the measurement of the physical parameters from which efficiency is obtained. As shown in Fig. 2, the turbine configuration employed is the impulse turbine having fixed guide vanes both upstream and downstream, and these geometries are symmetrical with respect to the rotor centerline. The specifications of the impulse turbine rotor adopted in the experiments are as follows. The blade profile consists of a circular arc on the pressure side and part of an ellipse on the suction side. The ellipse has semi-major axis of

Manabu TAKAO et al.

Impulse Turbine with End Plates for Wave Energy Conversion

8 34.

60 o

R37.2 t0.5

lg

70

lr = 54

R0 .5

ta/Sr= 0.4 125.8

0.5

U = r

Rotor

41.4

w1

va

Sr

16.1

R0 R 3 .5 0.2

20

v1

Sg 60 o

Guide vane

lr = 54 c

30

v2 U = r

ta

60
30 o

20

va

w2

End plate
44
Fig. 3

Sg
34 .8

Guide vane

Blade

Fig. 2

Turbine configuration at mean radius

125.8 mm and semi-minor axis of 41.4 mm. The chord length is lr = 54 mm; solidity of 2.02 at mean radius r; blade inlet (or outlet) angle of 60; thickness ratio of 0.3; tip diameter of 299 mm; tip clearance of 0.5 mm; hub-to-tip ratio of 0.7. Note that the adopted turbine rotor is the most promising one [3, 4]. The guide vanes with the chord length of lg = 70 mm are symmetrically installed at the distance of 20 mm downstream and upstream of the rotor as shown in Fig. 2. The camber line of guide vane consists of a straight line and a circular arc. Detailed information about the guide vane is as follows: solidity of 2.27 at r; thickness ratio of 0.0071; camber angle of 60; gap to chord ratio of 0.37; setting angle of 30. This guide vane is also considered the most promising one in the previous studies [3, 4]. The geometry of end plate used in the study is shown in Figs. 3 and 4. The end plate attached to the tip of the original blade is slightly larger in comparison with the original blade section. The end plate is made of tin and having the thickness of 0.5 mm. The plate has a width of c as shown in the figure in order to investigate the effect of plate size on the performance. In the study, the width c is ranging from 54.0 mm to 70.2 mm (1.0 c/lr 1.3). In the study, the effect of annular plate on the turbine performance, which encircles the turbine and is attached to the tip as shown in Fig. 5, was investigated as an additional experiment. The width of annular plate a is ranging from 54.0 mm to 70.2 mm (1.0 a/lr 1.3).

Casing Blade lr = 54

44.5
44

0.5
R150

(a) Original

0.5

Casing End plate Blade lr = 54

0.5

c
(b) With end plate Fig. 4 Cross section of rotor and casing

R150

lg = 70

t0.5 R37.2
Unit : mm

60

Hub
Rotor with end plate

Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Experimental and Computational Aerothermodynamics of Internal Flows

1.9

lr = 54 a

1.7 1.5

Annular plate Blade Hub

CT

1.3 1.1

Fig. 5

Rotor with annular plate

CA

Experimental Results and Discussions

The turbine performance under steady flow conditions is evaluated by turbine efficiency , torque coefficient CT and input coefficient CA against flow coefficient . The definitions of these parameters are as follows: CT = T / { (v2+U2)hlrzr / 2} CA = pQ / { (v2+U2)hlrzv / 2} (1) (2) (3) (4)

= T / (pQ) = CT / (CA) =v/U

where , v, U and z denote the density of air, axial flow velocity, circumferential velocity at r and number of rotor blades, respectively. Figure 6 shows the experimental results regarding the effect of size of end plate on turbine characteristics under steady flow conditions. From Fig. 6(a), it is clear that the value of CT in the case of the turbine with end plates (c/lr > 1.0) is higher than that in the case of the turbine without plate (c/lr = 1.0) in the whole range of . Then, the CT increases with c/lr and keeps constant at c/lr 1.225. Regarding CA- characteristics in Fig. 6(b), although C A also increases with c/l r , its increase is

0.5

0.9 0.7

0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9

c/lr=1.0 (original) 1.15 1.225 1.3

44

1.1

1.2

1.3

R105

(a) Torque coefficient

3.4 3.2 3 2.8 2.6 2.4 2.2 2
c/lr=1.0 (original) 1.15 1.225 1.3

0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9

1.1 1.2 1.3

(b) Input coefficient

0.5 0.48 0.46 0.44
c/lr=1.0 (original)

0.42 0.4 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9

1.15 1.225 1.3

1.1

1.2

1.3

(c) Efficiency Fig. 6 Effect of size of end plate on turbine characteristics under steady flow conditions

Manabu TAKAO et al.

Impulse Turbine with End Plates for Wave Energy Conversion

1.9 1.7 1.5

CA

lower than that of CT. Therefore, the peak efficiency increases with c/lr and the value in the case of c/lr = 1.225 is 48.7 % as shown in Fig. 6(c). When compared to the turbine without plate, its peak efficiency is higher by 2.2 %. The reason why the increase of is that the end plate prevented the flow interaction between suction side and pressure side of the rotor [5]. According to this fact, it is clear that the increase of peak efficiency is achieved by attaching the end plate to the tip. Consequently, the use of end plate is effective in enhancing the turbine performance. Figure 7 shows the effect of annular plate on the turbine characteristics under steady flow conditions. As shown in Fig. 7(a), the torque coefficient CT in the case of the turbine with plate (a/lr 1.0) is higher than that of the original turbine. On the other hand, CA in the case of the turbine with plate increases by using the annular plate {Fig. 7(b)}. The peak efficiency increases with a/lr as shown in Fig. 7(c). The value of in the case of a/lr = 1.3 is 48.7 % and its peak efficiency is higher than that in the case of the original turbine by 2.2 %. Therefore, it can be concluded that the annular plate is also effective in improving the turbine characteristics.

CT

1.3 1.1 0.9 0.7 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9

Original a/lr=1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3

1.1

1.2

1.3

(a) Torque coefficient

3.4 3.2 3 2.8 2.6 2.4 2.2 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9
Original a/lr=1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3

Conclusions
In order to improve the performance of the impulse turbine with fixed guide vanes for wave energy conversion, the effect of end plate on the turbine characteristics was investigated experimentally by model testing under steady flow conditions. Moreover, the effect of annular plate on the turbine performance was also investigated as an additional experiment. The experimental results of the turbine with end plates were compared with those of the original impulse turbine, i.e., the turbine without end plate. The conclusions are as follows: (1) Since the characteristics of the impulse turbine with end plates are superior to those of the original impulse turbine, the use of end plate is effective in enhancing the turbine performance. (2) The annular plate is also effective in improving the turbine characteristics of the turbine. (3) The turbine characteristics are dependent on the size of end plate and annular plate.

1.1

1.2

1.3

(b) Input coefficient

0.5 0.48 0.46 0.44 0.42 0.4
Original a/lr=1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3

References
[1] Bhattacharyya, R.; McCormick, M.E.: Wave Energy Conversion, Elsevier, (2003). [2] Raghunathan, S.: The Wells Air Turbine for Wave Energy Conversion, Progress in Aerospace Sciences, vol.31, no.4, pp.335-386, (1995). [3] Setoguchi, T.; Takao, M.; Kinoue, Y.; Kaneko, K.;

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1.1

1.2

1.3

(c) Efficiency Fig. 7 Effect of width of annular plate on turbine characteristics under steady flow conditions

Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Experimental and Computational Aerothermodynamics of Internal Flows

Santhakumar, S.; Inoue, M.: Study on an Impulse Turbine for Wave Energy Conversion, International Journal of Offshore and Polar Engineering, vol.10, no.2, pp.145-152, (2000). [4] Setoguchi, T.; Santhakumar, S.; Maeda, H.; Takao, M.; Kaneko, K.: A Review of Impulse Turbine for Wave Energy Conversion, Renewable Energy, vol.23, pp.261-292,

(2001). [5] Hyun, B.S.; Moon, J.S.; Hong, S.W.; Kim, K.S.: Design of Impulse Turbine with an End Plate for Wave Energy Conversion, Proceedings of the 15th International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference, Seoul, Korea, vol.1, pp.507-512, (2005).