Productivity of Ocean-Wave-Energy Converters: Turbine Design
Publication: Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 128, Issue 2
Abstract
A study was undertaken to identify which of a range of advanced Wells turbine configurations would maximize wave power productivity. The productivity is estimated of a monoplane with fixed guide vanes, a monoplane with variable-pitch blades, and a high- and low-solidity biplane with counterrotating rotors. Two control mechanisms are investigated for the variable pitch configuration. Raleigh distributions based on a mean annual pneumatic power rating of 500 kW are utilized to generate the short and long-term variations of input power to be matched with experimental turbine performance data obtained from a steady-state test rig. It was found that productivity was relatively insensitive to turbine configuration but that a low-solidity counterrotating turbine had the best performance characteristic providing high peak efficiency and gradual onset of stall.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Energy Engineering
Volume 128 • Issue 2 • August 2002
Pages: 13 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 8, 2001
Accepted: Feb 19, 2002
Published online: Jul 15, 2002
Published in print: Aug 2002
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