Numerical Simulation and Experimental Investigation on Performance of the Wells Turbine in Irregular Oscillating Flow

The Wells turbine is an axial-flow air-turbine designed to extract energy from ocean waves. An important consideration is the self-starting capability of the Wells turbine, a phenomenon encountered where the turbine accelerate by itself up to a certain speed for the best turbine performance. In order to clarify the self-starting characteristic and running performance of the Wells turbine in an irregular oscillating flow, a numerical simulation process is established in this paper on the rational assumption of quasi-steady flow conditions, Both self-starting characteristics and running performance are obtained through the numerical simulation and subsequently compared with the experimental data achieved on a computer-controlled oscillating flow test rig which could realize some irregular oscillating flow according to the specified spectrum. Results show that the self-starting time decreases with the increase of the significant wave height and the mean frequency of the irregular oscillating flow, Therefore, it is possible to predict accurately the performance of the Wells turbine by computer simulation.

A Simple Method for Predicting Drag Characteristics of the Wells Turbine

The drag characteristics of the Wells turbine are difficult to be accurately predicted because of the influences of many variables. Detailed analyses about the effects of these variables on the drag characteristics educe that the most sensifive parameters to the drag characteristics are the turbine solidity of the turbine and incidence angle of airflow. In this paper, an experimental research is conducted on the pressure drop across the flat- plate rotor which is used to simulate the Wells turbine. After nondimensionalization and fitting of the experimental data, a common experiential formula is obtained. Compared with the experimental data from literature, the computational results are satisfactory. Thus, this report provides a simple and convenient method for predicting the drag characteristics of the Wells turbine and optimizing the match design between an oscillating water column and a chamber.

A RANS-VoF Numerical Model to Analyze the Output Power of An OWC-WEC Equipped with Wells and Impulse Turbines in A Hypothetical Sea-State

Wave energy is a renewable source with significant amount in relation to the global demand. A good concept of a device applied to extract this type of energy is the onshore oscillating water column wave energy converter(OWC-WEC). This study shows a numerical analysis of the diameter determination of two types of turbines, Wells and Impulse, installed in an onshore OWC device subjected to a hypothetical sea state. Commercial software FLUENT?,which is based on RANS-VoF(Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations and Volume of Fluid technique), is employed. A methodology that imposes air pressure on the chamber, considering the air compressibility effect, is used. The mathematical domain consists of a 10 m deep flume with a 10 m long and 10 m wide OWC chamber at its end(geometry is similar to that of the Pico's plant installed in Azores islands, Portugal). On the top of the chamber, a turbine works with air exhalation and inhalation induced by the water free surface which oscillates due to the incident wave. The hypothetical sea state, represented by a group of regular waves with periods from 6 to 12 s and heights from 1.00 to 2.00 m(each wave with an occurrence frequency), is considered to show the potential of the presented methodology. Maximum efficiency(relation between the average output and incident wave powers) of46% was obtained by using a Wells turbine with the diameter of 2.25 m, whereas the efficiency was 44% by an Impulse turbine with the diameter of 1.70 m.

Electrical control strategy for an ocean energy conversion system

Globally abundant wave energy for power generation attracts ever increasing attention. Because of non-linear dynamics and potential uncertainties in ocean energy conversion systems, generation productivity needs to be increased by applying robust control algorithms. This paper focuses on control strategies for a small ocean energy conversion system based on a direct driven permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG). It evaluates the performance of two kinds of control strategies, i.e., traditional field-oriented control (FOC) and robust adaptive control. The proposed adaptive control successfully achieves maximum velocity and stable power production, with reduced speed tracking error and system response time. The adaptive control also guarantees global system stability and its superiority over FOC by using a non-linear back-stepping control technique offering a better optimization solution. The robustness of the ocean energy conversion system is further enhanced by investigating the Lyapunov method and the use of a DC-DC boost converter. To overcome system complexity, turbine-generator based power take-off (PTO) is considered. A Matlab/Simulink study verifies the advantages of a non-linear control strategy for an Oscillating Water Column (OWC) based power generation system.