Affiliations: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Graduate School
of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo,
113-8656, Japan. E-mail: wells@cfdl.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp | Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies
Graduate School of The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo,
113-8656, Japan
Abstract: Wells turbine has the cascade whose stagger angle is
90°, namely the blades are perpendicular to the axial velocity.
Good performance is required from 0° to 90° angle
of attack because the turbine is operated in the oscillating airflow produced
with wave energy. Furthermore, very interesting and complex flows are
experimentally observed by the oil film method for large angles of attack where
the performance is strongly influenced, especially, the self-starting. This
paper tries to analyze the mechanism of these three-dimensional flows around
the turbine with the flow visualization and the numerical analysis, focusing on
the off-design condition.
Keywords: Flow visualization, Oil Film Method, Wells Turbine, Flow on Blades, Wave Power Generation
