Design analysis of 0.6m Impulse turbine with fixed guide vanes for wave energy power conversion

Abstract

SYNOPSIS Wave energy is the most abundant source of renewable energy in the world. For the last two decades, engineers have been investigating and defining different methods for power extraction from wave motion. Two different turbines, namely the Wells turbine and Impulse turbine with guide vanes, are commonly in use around the world for wave energy power generation. The overall purpose of this research is to perform a complete design analysis of an Impulse turbine with fixed guide vanes for wave energy power generation. The ultimate goal is to optimise the performance of the turbine under actual sea conditions. This research is divided into two phases. First, to design and manufacture a 0.6m diameter Impulse turbine with fixed guide vanes with a new hub to tip ratio; then to validate this design experimentally using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and to compare the performance characteristics obtained experimentally with those obtained from CFD. The second phase is to optimise turbine blade and guide vane geometry based on theoretical, experimental and CFD analysis and finally, to manufacture and test a 2nd generation turbine, based on this optimum design. This paper presents the work done during the first phase of the research. It reports the design of a 0.6m diameter Impulse turbine with fixed guide vanes, manufacture of turbine blades using a unique method of Rapid Prototyping on a Fused Decomposition Modelling (FDM) machine, experimental analysis of the turbine and comparison of the CFD work with experiment.