STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF SOME DESIGN PARAMETERS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF WELLS TURBINE USED IN SEA WAVE ENERGY POWER PLANTS

Abstract

The present work is concerned with studying the perfonnance of a new design of Wells turbine which is used in sea wave energy power plants. The turbine consists of four blades of symmetric aerofoil cross section. Four turbines were tested. The basic turbine has rectangular blades and a solidity ratio of 0.54. The remaining three tmbines have fan shapes with the same aerofoil section at both hub and tip diameters and variable projective solidity. Experiments were made at steady air flow conditions to evaluate the perfonnance of the new fan shape design. The results showed that fan shape turbines have similar features to turbines with rectangular blades. Increasing the solidity was found to increase the pressure drop coefficient and torque coefficient of the turbines. Turbines with high solidity, however, suffer from a reduction of maximwn efficiency.