Numerical Optimization of the Blade Surface Geometry in a Wave Turbine System |
| G. Ozdamara, Y. Pekbeyb
aEge University, Graduate School of Natural and Applied Science, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 35100 Izmir, Turkey bEge University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, 35100 Izmir, Turkey |
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| Environmental physics deals with energy demand problems and investigates the possible contributions of renewables to energy supply. Wave energy is one of the renewable, environmentally friendly types of energy sources. To convert the wave energy into the electrical energy, wave energy converters are used, such as the oscillating water column systems. Oscillating water column consists of air chamber, air turbine and generator. Air turbine is the main component of such system. It is a special type of turbine, called Wells turbine, which differs from others by its surface geometry. In the Wells turbine, blade surface geometry affects the efficiency enormously. An increased turbine efficiency with optimized turbine blade surface will contribute to environmental protection. In this study, it is aimed to increase the efficiency of an oscillating water column type wave turbine by using the dimpled blade surface instead of a flat blade surface. Numerical optimization is performed under Spalart Allmaras turbulence model in the commercial code ANSYS Fluent. Numerical results show that surface with dimples has higher efficiency when compared to flat blade surface. |
DOI:10.12693/APhysPolA.134.150 topics: environmental physics, optimization techniques, oscillating water column wave turbine, finite volume analysis, system efficiency |