Control synthesis for an impulse turbine: The Bradley Lake project

The synthesis of a viable control strategy for the multiple-jet impulse turbines utilized in the Bradley Lake hydroelectric project in Alaska is discussed. Digital simulation is used to assess modifications to various control schemes. Control is locally stable, but unstable to large perturbations. A strategy is developed which achieves global stability of the system. The new control is primarily based on enhancing deflector contributions to control     

Effects of turbine damping on performance of an impulse turbine for wave energy conversion under different sea conditions using numerical simulation techniques

This paper presents the work carried out to predict the behavior of a 0.6 m impulse turbine with fixed guide vanes with 0.6 hub to tip (H/T) ratio under real sea conditions.This enhances the earlier work done by authors on the subject by including the effects of damping applied by the turbine. Real wave data for different wave sites were used as the input data. A typical oscillating water column (OWC) geometry has been used for this simulation. Standard numerical techniques were employed to solve the non-linear behavior of the sea waves. Considering the quasi-steady assumption, uni-directional steady flow experimental data were used to simulate the turbine characteristics under irregular unsteady flow conditions. The test rotor used for this simulation consisted of 30 blades with elliptical profile with a set of symmetric, fixed guide vanes on both up-stream and down-stream sections of the rotor, with 26 vanes each. The results show that the performance of this type of turbine depends on the level of damping applied by the turbine and the prevailing wave site conditions. The objective of this paper is to predict the effects of applied damping on the behavior of impulse turbine under irregular, unsteady conditions for wave power conversion using numerical simulation.     

Performance analysis of an enhanced thermosyphon Rankine cycle using impulse turbine

Thermosyphon Rankine cycle (TRC) is an environmentally friendly system for direct extraction of electrical power using low enthalpy heat sources. An enhanced design of the TRC system using impulse turbine was recommended, in this paper. Energy and exergy analysis of the TRC was formulated in order to estimate its optimum operating conditions. Also the data available in open literature were used to validate the TRC mathematical model. The results showed that the highest efficiency happens for the reaction turbine model at the turbine infinite speed; and for the impulse turbine at the turbine limited speed. The simulation results indicated that the present model can be able to increase the efficiency of the TRC system.     

Application of Numerical Simulation Method to Predict the Performance of Wave Energy Device with Impulse Turbine

This paper presents the work carried out to predict the behavior of a 0.6 m Impulse turbine with fixed guide vanes with 0.6 hub-to-tip (H/T) ratio under real sea conditions. In order to predict the true performance of the actual Oscillating Water Column (OWC), the numerical technique has been fine tuned by incorporating the compressibility effect. Water surface elevation verses time history based on Pierson Moskowitz Spectra was used as the input data. Standard numerical techniques were employed to solve the non-linear behavior of the sea waves. The effect due to compressibility inside the air chamber and turbine performance under unsteady and irregular flow condition has been analyzed numerically. Considering the quasi-steady assumptions, unidirectional steady flow experimental data was used to simulate the turbine characteristics under irregular unsteady flow conditions. The results show that the performance of this type of turbine is quite stable and efficiency of air chamber and the mean conversion     

Computational Fluid Dynamics Benchmark of an Impulse Turbine with Fixed Guide Vanes

This paper presents the comparison of a three dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis with empirical performance data of a 0.6 m impulse turbine with fixed guide vanes used for wave energy power conversion. Pro-Engineer, Gambit and Fluent 6 were used to create a 3-D model of the turbine. A hybrid meshing scheme was used with hexahedral cells in the near blade region and tetrahedral and pyramid cells in the rest of the domain. The turbine has a hub-to-tip ratio of 0.6 and results were obtained over a wide range of flow coefficients. The model yielded a maximum efficiency of approximately 54% as compared to a maximum efficiency of around 49% from experiment. A degree of insight into flow behaviour, not possible with experiment, was obtained.     

Performance of an impulse turbine with fixed guide vanes for wave power conversion

A simple fixed geometry impulse turbine has been studied as a suitable power converter in Oscillating Water Column based wave power plants. Comparison with the Wells turbine, which is the commonly used self-rectifying turbine in such applications, shows it to be superior in performance under irregular flow conditions. Optimum guide vane angle for maximum efficiency has been arrived at based on the five angles tested.     

Enhancing the energy efficiency of the impulse turbine of a wave energy plant

The power take-off mechanism of the oscillating water column based Indian wave energy plant is based on an impulse turbine-permanent magnet synchronous generator (PMSG) set. The MATLAB based simulation of the dynamic model of this power module, considering the plant's operation on the stand-alone mode, is developed incorporating a machine variable model for the PMSG used. It is shown that the energy efficiency of the impulse turbine can be substantially increased by adjusting the load resistance dynamically, as a function of the input differential pressure.     

风轮固有频率精度模拟方法研究

针对某风力机风轮固有频率模拟计算,利用SolidWorks软件中样条曲线对多数据点同步拟合功能生成了光滑的叶片各翼型面曲线,同时利用SolidWorks软件中放样对多数据曲线同步拟合功能实现了叶片整体光滑建模,从而有效解决了模态计算中网络划分时因计算模型非流线性而产生死点或网格畸变的常发性错误,实现了网格的理想划分。利用ANSYS13.0软件模态分析计算模块,配合模型部件材质、部件间接触条件、风轮整体约束条件近实体化设置,使风轮前三阶固有频率计算值与试验值相对误差在5%以内,实现了风轮固有频率的精度模拟。分析产生数据差异的原因主要为实际叶片材质并非各项同性。精度模态计算方法的实现,对风轮结构优化设计及模态计算方面的研究具有较重要的应用价值。     

燃气轮机燃烧室模型仿真

目前燃气轮机由于体积小,清洁无污染而在清洁发电技术领域有较多应用。燃烧室作为燃气轮机主要部件之一,是燃料燃烧产生热能从而通过在后续涡轮中做功输出电能的重要枢纽。为有效提高机组的安全性及可靠性,需要针对燃气轮机系统尤其是燃烧室进行建模分析。由于燃烧室的实际运行情况具有复杂性,因此对其进行简化处理,针对其工作的特性对其进行模拟研究。采用模块化建模,基于能量平衡与质量平衡分析燃烧室的稳定运行工况,并且采用欧拉显式微分方程对其进行了动态数学建模。并利用编程语言对燃烧室模型进行了编译,转化为了二次建模进而基于智能仿真平台对其运行过程中进行分析,即环境温度、环境压力以及燃料品质(燃料热值)变化对燃烧室性能的影响。     

风力机动态模拟方法研究

由于受条件限制,实验室无法进行真实风力机发电的实验,因此利用常用电机模拟风力机,对风力发电及并网进行研究可作为一种实用方法。在分析风力机的机械特性基础上,利用三种电机模拟风力机,并给出相关结论。     

海上风力机的数值模拟

针对海上风力机运行的特点,根据NRELS809翼型数据,建立了水平轴风力机的整体模型。采用空气和水的两相流模型模拟海上工况,对模型进行数值计算,得到叶片绕流的速度分布和压力分布,并对两相流和单相流的变化情况进行了对比,最后对塔架的压力分布进行计算说明。研究结果表明:在两相流工况下,风轮叶片具有较高的功率系数,但该工况对叶片的强度、材料要求较高;气流流过叶片后均存在速度亏损,并在1倍风轮半径处趋于稳定;风轮对塔架的压力分布产生一定影响。     

Multiple surrogate based optimization of a bidirectional impulse turbine for wave energy conversion

Oscillating water column based wave energy extracting system has a low efficiency due to the poor performance of its principal power extracting component, the bidirectional turbine. In the present work, flow over a bidirectional impulse turbine was simulated using CFD technique and optimized using multiple surrogates approach. The surrogates being problem dependent may produce unreliable results, if a wrong surrogate is selected. Hence, multiple surrogates such as response surface approximation, radial basis function, Kriging and weighted average surrogates were incorporated in this problem. Same design points were used to generate multiple optima via multiple surrogates to enhance the robustness of the optimization process. Numbers of guide vanes and rotor blades were chosen as the design variables, and the objective was to maximize the blade efficiency. Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations were solved for analyzing the flow physics. The computed results were used to train the surrogates and find the optimal points via hybrid genetic algorithm. The surrogates were further applied to find the optimal flow parameters by changing flow velocity and turbine speed. The relative efficiency enhancement through our present approach was about 16%. Detailed methodologies, analysis of the results and surrogate applicability have been presented in this paper.     

Design and performance analysis of impulse turbine for a wave energy power plant

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 Wells turbine and impulse turbine with guide vanes, are most commonly used around the world for wave energy power generation. The ultimate goal is to optimize the performance of the turbine under actual sea conditions. The total research effort has several strands; there is the manufacture and experimental testing of new turbines using the Wave Energy Research Team's (WERT) 0.6 m turbine test rig, the theoretical and computational analysis of the present impulse turbine using a commercial software package and finally the prediction of the performance of the turbine in a representative wave power device under real sea conditions using numerical simulation. Also, the WERT 0.6 m turbine test rig was upgraded with a data acquisition and control system to test the turbine in the laboratory under real sea conditions using the computer control system. As a result, it is proven experimentally and numerically that the turbine efficiency has been raised by 7% by reducing the hub‐to‐tip ratio from 0.7 to 0.6. Effect of tip clearance on performance of the turbine has been studied numerically and designed tip clearance ratio of 1% has been validated. From the numerical simulation studies, it is computed that the mean conversion efficiency is reduced around 5% and 4.58% due to compressible flow and damping effects inside OWC device. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Computed effects of tip clearance on performance of impulse turbine for wave energy conversion

This paper depicts numerical analysis on Impulse turbine with fixed guide vanes for wave energy conversion. From the previous investigations, it is found that one of the reasons for the mismatch between computed and experimental data is due to neglecting tip clearance ef fect. Hence, a 3-D model with tip clearance has been generated to predict the internal flow and performance of the turbine. As a result, it is found that the comparison between computed and experimental data is good, quantitatively and qualitatively. Computation has been carried out for various tip clearances to understand the physics of tip leakage flow and effect of tip clearance on performance of such unconventional turbine. It is predicted that the turbine with 0.25% tip clearance performs almost similar to the case of without tip clearance for the entire flow coefficients. The designed value of 1% tip clearance has been validated numerically and computed that the efficiency of the turbine has been reduced around 4%, due to tip clearance flow at higher flow coefficients.     

Indoor simulation of amplitude modulated wind turbine noise

Wind energy is the world's fastest‐growing renewable energy source; as a result, the number of people exposed to wind farm noise is increasing. Because of its broadband amplitude‐modulated characteristic, wind turbine noise (WTN) is more annoying than noise produced by other common community/industrial sources. As higher frequencies are attenuated by air absorption and building transmission, the noise from modern large wind farms is mainly below 1000 and 500 Hz for outdoor and indoor conditions, respectively. Many WTN complaints relate to indoor, nighttime conditions when background noise levels are lower. As recently reported, indoor noise has the potential to cause sleeping disorders. Studies on human response to amplitude modulated WTN have been mainly focused on the outdoors, where a large amount of measured data exists. This is not the case for indoors, where it is much harder to gather data. Hence, there is a need to understand the transmission of WTN into dwellings and to develop indoor annoyance metrics. In this article, we investigate the transmission of WTN into residential‐type structures. Using an outdoor WTN recording and structures with different properties/configurations, we made a series of computer simulations for indoor noise predictions and assessed the results employing several widely used metrics for WTN, for example, spectral content, modulation depth and overall levels. In general, the indoor noise levels are higher, and the average modulation depth is similar to those of outdoor recordings. In addition, there is a significant change in the spectral shape. These results could potentially explain indoor WTN annoyance. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A comparison of two meshing schemes for CFD analysis of the impulse turbine for wave energy applications

This paper presents the comparison of a three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis with empirical performance data of a 0.6 m Impulse Turbine with Fixed Guide Vanes used for wave energy power conversion. Pro-Engineer, Gambit and Fluent 6 were used to create a 3-D model of the turbine. A hybrid meshing scheme was used with hexahedral cells in the near blade region and tetrahedral and pyramid cells in the rest of the domain. The turbine has a hub-to-tip ratio of 0.6 and results were obtained over a wide range of flow coefficients. Satisfactory agreement was obtained with experimental results. The model yielded a maximum efficiency of approximately 54% as compared to a maximum efficiency of around 49% from experiment. A degree of insight into flow behaviour, not possible with experiment, was obtained. Sizeable areas of separation on the pressure side of the rotor blade were identified toward the tip. The aim of the work is to benchmark the CFD results with experimental data and to investigate the performance of the turbine using CFD and to with a view to integrating CFD into the design process.     

用CFD方法模拟计算风力机尾流的研究

根据计算流体力学的原理和数值计算的方法,将研究区域划分为非结构网格,通过设置合理的边界条件,采用湍流模型模拟了不同间距的风力机尾流流场,对不同尾流流场的压力、速度和涡量的分布进行了分析,从而确定了在风力强度及风向相同的情况下,不同风力机间距的尾流特点。     

向心透平内部流动的数值分析及叶轮的改进设计

本文对一微型燃气轮机向心透平内部的三维流场进行了数值研究。在流场模拟的基础上对原结构的内部流场进行了分析探讨,指出原设计中可以改进的地方并成功的对叶轮进行了改进设计,使向心式透平效率提高了二点几个百分点。     

风力机叶片翼型气动性能数值模拟

采用数值模拟方法对NACA23012,NACA4412,S809,S810等4种常用风力机叶片翼型进行了研究,分析了翼型静止与振荡时的气动性能.随着攻角的增加,静止翼型的升力系数先增大后减小,其阻力系数一直增大,显示出NACA4412翼型具有较好的低风速启动性能;振荡翼型的升力系数随着攻角的变化呈现一个闭合迟滞环曲线,显示出振荡翼型S809的动态失速迟滞效应最为明显.文章参照模拟结果和对比试验数据,验证了数值模拟的可靠性.