Effects of blade geometry on performance of wells turbine for wave power conversion

An optimum design of the turbine would need a clear understanding of the influence of blade geometry on a Wells turbine performance. Practically, it is difficult to suggest the optimum geometry for the Wells turbine due to the complex interrelation among important parameters, the solidity, hub-to-tip ratio, aspect ratio, blade sweep of rotor, and so on. In the present study, the effect of blade geometry with the hub-to-tip and aspect ratios of rotor on the turbine performance was investigated with a numerical technique. As a result, the optimum blade geometry is as follows: the hub-to-tip ratio is about 0.7, and the aspect ratio about 0.5 under other constant important parameters, NACA0020 blade with blade sweep ratio of 0.35, and solidity of about 0.67. Furthermore, the detailed flow patterns for blade geometry were also shown and discussed in this paper.