Energy 206 (2020) 118205

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Experimental Analysis of a Biplane Wells Turbine under Different Load

Conditions
Tapas K. Das , Kumud Kumar , Abdus Samad *
Wave Energy and Fluids Engineering Lab (WEFEL), Ocean Engineering Department, IIT- Madras, Chennai, 600036, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The oscillating water column type wave energy converters equipped with Wells turbine are one of the
Received 21 September 2019 popular wave energy conversion devices. In most of the numerical and experimental studies, the Wells
Received in revised form turbine characteristics are examined in no-load condition or with a fixed loading to achieve a fixed
10 April 2020
rotational speed. In the present work, a biplane Wells turbine is designed and tested in an experimental
Accepted 20 June 2020
test facility. The test facility consists of a piston-chamber assembly that can generate sinusoidal airflow
Available online 27 June 2020
inside a duct. The turbine is placed inside the duct and tested for different stroke lengths and time
periods of the piston, which produces a sinusoidal inlet airflow of different amplitude and time period.
Keywords:
Wave energy converter
The turbine characteristics are studied at the no-load condition and for different values of resistive
OWC loading connected with the generator. The hysteresis behavior of the turbine is studied for two different
Wells turbine flow coefficients based on experimentally observed and numerically calculated volume flow rates. Based
Experimental analysis on the experimental results, a detailed analysis of the turbine performance is presented for different
operating conditions.
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The depletion of conventional energy resources has led scien-
tists and engineers to look for renewable sources of energy. The
ocean is a huge source of non-conventional energy, mainly in the
forms of wave energy and tidal energy. One advantage of ocean
energy is that it has the highest energy density among all the
renewable energy sources [1]. As the wind blows over the ocean
surface, the energy from the wind is accumulated in the ocean wave
with time. The wave energy capacity around the world is approx-
imated to be 8000-80000 TW/year [2]. Different methods and
devices have been developed and tested to harness the wave en-
ergy into a useable form [3]. Wave energy converters (WEC) can be
classified with respect to water depth. Nearshore devices are
generally shallow water devices often attached to the seabed.
Whereas, the deepwater WECs are generally floating devices placed
at a water depth greater than 40 m [3,4]. Deepwater WECs can
extract more energy due to higher energy content in deep water
waves; however, the construction and maintenance of deep water
WECs are more complicated compared to shallow water WECs.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: mech.tapas@gmail.com (T.K. Das), kumud142k@gmail.com
(K. Kumar), samad@iitm.ac.in (A. Samad).
Among the various types of WECs, oscillating water column (OWC)
has attracted the attention of researchers mainly due to its
simplicity in operation. An OWC (Fig. 1) is made up of a chamber-
like structure; the bottom of the structure is open to the ocean
under the water surface, and the top of the structure is open to the
atmosphere above the water level. As the waves enter and exit the
duct connected with the chamber, a pressure difference is created
inside the chamber. The oscillatory motion of the wave inside the
duct creates an oscillatory motion of air in and out of the chamber.
The OWC uses a special power take-off (PTO) device that rotates
with the help of oscillatory motion of the air and generates elec-
tricity. Wells turbine is a power take-off device, that can rotate in
only one direction irrespective of the direction of the airflow. A
generator connected with the turbine produces useful energy in the
form of electricity. Although an OWC may face different challenges
in operation due to varying sea states, using a suitable control
technique can improve the performance of the whole system [5].
The Wells turbine is a special type of axial turbine made up of
symmetrical aerofoil blades. When air flows over the Wells turbine
blade, a lift and drag force is generated by the blades (Fig. 2). The lift
force acts perpendicular to the relative velocity of the blade,
whereas the drag force acts parallel to the relative velocity on the
blade. If the lift and drag forces are resolved along the axial and
tangential direction, the tangential force always acts in one

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2020.118205
0360-5442/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
2 T.K. Das et al. / Energy 206 (2020) 118205

Nomenclature UP Uncertainty of primary variable (in %)

US Uncertainty of secondary variable (in %)
a Angle of attack (degree) V Voltage (Volt)
B Accuracy of the instrument (in %) va Inlet air velocity (m/sec)
D Drag force (N) w Relative velocity (m/sec)
Eemf Electromotive force (Volt) Xi Any measured value (
)
FN Normal force (N) z Number of blades (
)
FT Tangential force (N) DP Pressure drop across turbine (kPa)
G Gap between two plane (m) DP* Pressure drop coefficient (
)
I Current (Amp) r Density of air (kg/m3)
J Moment of Inertia (kg-m2) sm Solidity at mean radius (
)
Ke Generator constant (
) 4 Flow coefficient (
)
L Lift force (N) u Rotational speed (rpm)
N Number of measurements
P Precision limit (in %) Subscript
Pe Electrical power (Watt) Max Maximum value
Q Inlet airflow rate (m3/sec)
rh Hub radius (m) Abbreviation
rt Tip radius (m) FS Full scale
SX Standard deviation of the measured values OWC Oscillating water column
t Time (sec) PMDC Permanent magnet direct current
T* Torque coefficient (
) PTO Power take-off
t* Normalized time (
) SL Stroke length
Te Electromagnetic torque (N-m) VFD Variable frequency drive
Tl Load torque (N-m) WEC Wave Energy Converter
Tnl No-load torque (N-m)

direction (for a range of incidence angles) irrespective of the di-
rection of airflow (Eq. (1)). One of the main disadvantages of the
Wells turbine is the stall phenomenon associated with it. For Wells
turbine blades, the angle of attack plays a significant role in the
turbine performance. If the angle of attack is beyond a certain angle
(known as the stall angle), the flow over the blade starts to separate
from the blade surface leading to a reduction in torque generation
as well as efficiency.
Since the inception of Wells turbine, many researchers have
carried out experimental and numerical studies to examine
different design modifications for improving the turbine perfor-
mance in terms of efficiency and operating range. Gato and Webster
[6] experimentally studied the effects of blade sweep on the per-
formance of a Wells turbine. The experiment result showed a swept
backward blade has better torque characteristics and a wider
operating range but at the cost of peak efficiency. Starzmann and
Carolus [7] experimentally studied the effect of blade skew on
Wells turbine performance and concluded that optimum forward
or backward skewed blade improves the range of unstalled oper-
ation by 5%. Other blade geometry modifications, such as, pene-
trating blade tip [8], 3-dimensional blade [9], blade with variable
chord [10], hub-to-tip profile modification [11], blade with variable
solidity [12] static extended trailing edge [13], gurney flap [14]
showed marginal improvement in terms of peak torque and oper-
ating range. Iino et al. [15] developed a stall delay Wells turbine by
introducing additional blades. Several authors used different opti-
mization techniques to improve the performance of the turbine.
Halder et al. [16] used a surrogate-based optimization technique to
optimize the blade profile thickness and blade sweep along with a
casing groove. The optimized blade improved turbine efficiency by

Fig. 1. Schematic of an OWC.

 T.K. Das et al. / Energy 206 (2020) 118205
Fig. 2. Forces on Wells turbine blade.
FT ¼ L sin a
D cos a (1a)
FN ¼ L cos a þ D sin a (1b)
8%. Gratton et al. [17] used a free form deformation tool to optimize
the blade profile of Wells turbine. The torque coefficient is
improved by 14% compared to the reference turbine. Shaaban [18]
used a non-standard optimized blade profile to increase the annual
average turbine power output by 3.6% under typical sea conditions.
Mohamed et al. [19,20] used an automated optimization algorithm
to optimize the blade profile and blade pitch angle. The optimized
turbines showed significant improvement in performance (average
power output improved by 11.3% and efficiency improved by 2.3%)
compared to reference turbine. Hashem et al. [21] numerically
investigated the performance of Wells turbine by using water as the
working fluid. The torque coefficient was improved by 1.4 times
compared to that of conventional Wells turbine using air as work-
ing fluid. However, most of these studies were carried out on
monoplane Wells turbine. One major drawback of a monoplane
Wells turbine is the loss of kinetic energy from the exit of the rotor
blade. Raghunathan [22] suggested two methods to recover some
part of this exit kinetic energy: to use a set of guide vane after the
rotor blade or to use another set of rotor blade in a plane down-
stream of main rotor blade (a biplane Wells turbine).
Gato and Falcao [23] used a double row of guide vanes at the
inlet and outlet of the rotor. The theoretical and experimental study
carried out by the authors showed a considerable increase in effi-
ciency and operating range when guide vanes are used. The guide
vanes help to recover the exit kinetic energy arising from the swirl
component of the velocity at the outlet of the rotor [24]. To keep the
angle of attack same throughout the span of the blade, Takao et al.
3
[25] and Setoguchi et al. [26] suggested a 3-D guide vane. An
experimental study was carried out to compare the performance of
2-D and 3-D guide vanes. The 3-D guide vanes have superior per-
formance in running and starting characteristics compared to 2-D
guide vanes. However, installation and maintenance of guide
vane need special care during the actual operation of the OWC.
For Wells turbine, the pressure drop across the turbine blade is
proportional to the square of the rotational speed [22]. The Mach
number of the Wells turbine is determined by the tip speed of the
turbine, which is a function of the turbine rotational speed. To avoid
any transonic effect on the turbine performance, the turbine speed
must be limited beyond a critical Mach number. In any OWC that
produces high inlet pressure due to wave condition can lead to
transonic effects in monoplane Wells turbine as a result of high
rotational speed. In such a condition, a biplane Wells turbine can be
used with less transonic effects compared to a monoplane Wells
turbine. Gato and Curran [27] gave a detailed analytical and
experimental analysis of a biplane Wells turbine by varying
different geometrical parameters of the turbine. Shaaban [28] car-
ried out a detailed numerical analysis of a biplane Wells turbine
explaining the interaction between the upstream and downstream
rotor. It was shown that the performance of the downstream rotor
is affected for a G/c ratio up to 1.4, and the downstream rotor
produces 10e30% of the total turbine torque. Das and Samad [29]
numerically investigated the effect of midplane guide vanes in a
biplane Wells turbine. Kinoue et al. [30] numerically studied the
hysteresis behavior of the biplane Wells turbine and compared it
with the behavior of a monoplane Wells turbine. It was shown that
the biplane Wells turbine has hysteresis behavior similar to a
monoplane Wells turbine at a higher angle of attack.
To understand the performance of any turbomachines, both
numerical and experimental analyses are equally significant. While
numerical analysis gives in-depth analysis and flow patterns
around the blade, an experimental analysis is more realistic in
nature as it takes into consideration the different losses that may
occur in the actual operation. Table 1 lists the different experi-
mental analyses carried out on the Wells turbine along with the
details of the turbine and experiment. The list is not exhaustive;
however, it consists of the experiments carried out by different
research groups. It can be seen that both monoplane and biplane
Wells turbines have been tested for steady as well as oscillatory
inlet flow conditions. A wide variety of blade profiles and solidity
were tested by different authors. The Reynolds number at which
the experiments were carried out also varied extensively (from
0.76  10^5 to 3.15  10^6). However, most of the experimental
analysis was focused on the turbine performance in no-load con-
dition (where the generator was not connected to any external
load) or at a fixed loading connected to the generator (to achieve a
fixed rotational speed of the turbine). The dynamic behavior of the
OWC system changes when the PTO device is connected to any
external loading. In the present work, a biplane Wells turbine is
tested subjected to an oscillating airflow of varying amplitude and
time period. The turbine is tested for no-load condition as wells as
different resistive loads connected with the generator.
2. Experiment setup
The experimental setup at the IIT Madras consists of a piston-
chamber assembly that generates the oscillating flow for the tur-
bine. A schematic of the complete experimental setup is shown in
Fig. 3(a). The 1.2 m diameter piston is fitted with O-ring inside a
cylindrical chamber of 1.5 m length, as shown in Fig. 3(c). The
piston can reciprocate inside the chamber with the help of a con-
necting rod and crank mechanism, which is run by an external
motor. The stroke length of the piston is controlled by changing the
4 T.K. Das et al. / Energy 206 (2020) 118205

Table 1
Previous laboratory-based experimental works on Wells turbine.

Authors Blade profile solidity Tip diameter Monoplane Steady/oscillatory Reynolds No.
/biplane

Gato and Curran [31] Naca 0015 0.64,1.28 590 mm Monoplane, Steady 3.9,6.5  105
Variable thickness (hub naca0021, tip naca0009) biplane
Kaneko et al. [32] NACA 0020 0.35,0.44, 300 mm Biplane Steady, oscillatory 1.5  105
0.52,0.61
Govardhan and Dhanasekaran [24] NACA 0021 0.6 263 mm Monoplane Steady 2.2,3.15  106
Thakker and Abdulhadi [33] NACA0020 0.48,0.64 600 mm Monoplane Steady, 1.0,4.4  105
NACA0015 oscillatory,
CA9 random
HSIM 15-262,123-1576
Raghunathan et al. [34] NACA0021 0.5,0.75 200 mm Monoplane Steady, oscillatory 0.85,2.5  105
Camporeale et al. [35] NACA0015 0.64 155 mm Monoplane Steady, oscillatory 1.36  106
Heikal et al. [36] NACA0021 0.38,0.51, 498 mm Monoplane Steady 1.5  105
0.64,0.45,
0.57
Starzman and Carolus [37] Variable chord 0.65e0.81 400 mm Monoplane Steady 5.4,9.4  105
Dorrell and Hseih [38] NACA0015 Not 132 mm Biplane Oscillatory 0.76  105
mentioned
Paderi and Pauddu [39] NACA0015 0.729 250 mm Monoplane Oscillatory 0.78,1.8  106

crank radius. The time period of the piston is controlled by varying
the speed of the motor using a variable frequency drive (VFD). The
other end of the piston is connected to a 200 mm inner diameter
duct of 1 m length. The turbine is placed inside the small removable
duct section, as shown in Fig. 3(b). The duct has an inner diameter
of 200 mm, which gives 2 mm tip clearance for the 196 mm tip
diameter turbine. The turbine shaft is connected with a PMDC
generator through a torque transducer. The generator has a rated
capacity of 150 Watt and a rated rotational speed of 3000 rpm.
3. Turbine geometry
196 mm tip diameter biplane Wells turbine is designed and man-
ufactured for the present experiment (Fig. 4). The biplane Wells
turbine blades have a symmetrical NACA0021 profile. Each plane
has six blades of 50 mm chord length. The geometric parameters of
the turbine are selected based on the recommendation provided in
Ref. [22]. The stagger angle between the blades of two planes is 30 .
Each plane has a solidity of 0.57, making an overall solidity of 1.14 of
the whole turbine. The gap between each plane is 1.5 times the
chord length. The turbine is manufactured using a selective laser
sintering method with polyamide material. The weight of the tur-
bine is 1.1 kg after manufacturing. The detailed geometric param-
eters of the turbine are listed in Table 2.

Based on the duct size available in the experimental setup, a

Fig. 3. (a) Schematic diagram of the experimental setup (b) Actual experimental setup (c) Piston chamber connected with the gearbox.
 T.K. Das et al. / Energy 206 (2020) 118205
Fig. 4. The biplane Wells turbine used for the experiment.
4. Instrumentation
Fig. 5 shows the instrumentation chain of the experimental
setup. The volume flow rate is measured by DEBIMO airflow
measurement blade, which is placed at a distance of 500 mm away
from the turbine inlet. The DEBIMO airflow measurement blade
measures the average pressure across the duct and sends it to a
multifunction transmitter. The transmitter calculates the airflow
rate based on the diameter of the duct. It is to be noted that the
instrument can measure the airflow rate in only one direction. For
this experiment, the airflow is measured only during the exhalation
stage. The pressure drop across the turbine blades is measured
using the ABB differential pressure transmitter. The pressure tap-
ings are placed 15 mm before and after the upstream and down-
stream blade, respectively. A torque transducer connected between
the rotor and the PMDC generator measures the shaft torque as well
as the rotational speed. The generator is connected with a variable
resistor where the resistive load can be varied from 0 to 100 U. The
voltage and current produced by the generator are measured by
RISH Ducer isolating amplifier and a shunt, respectively. When the
generator is not connected with the resistor, it works as a no-load
condition. A data acquisition system collects all the data from the
instruments and feeds it to a personal computer in a format feasible
for real-time monitoring. The data acquisition system is capable of
taking instrument data at 1 kHz sampling rate. A variable frequency
drive (VFD) is used to control the speed of the motor, which, in
effect, controls the time period of the piston movement. The fre-
quency of the VFD is fixed manually before starting each test.
Table 3 gives the range and accuracy of all the instruments used for
the experiment.
Table 2
Geometric parameters of the turbine.
Parameter Description
Aerofoil profile NACA0021
Number of blades (z) 6/plane
Hub radius (rh) 68 mm
Hub to tip ratio 0.69
Chord length (c) 50 mm
Solidity at mean radius (sm) 0.57/plane
Aspect ratio 0.6
Gap-to-chord ratio (G/c) 1.5
Tip clearance 2 mm
5
5. Experimental procedure
The experiment was carried out at different combinations of
time period (Tp) and stroke length (SL) for both no-load and various
load conditions. The time period signifies the total time taken to
complete an exhalation and inhalation stroke of the piston. The
time period of the piston is varied by varying the frequency of VFD.
Three different time periods are chosen to carry out the experi-
ment. For each time period, the stroke length of the piston is
changed to three different values by changing the crank radius. Out
of the total nine combinations, two combinations are not used for
experiment. For Tp ¼ 5.5 s and SL ¼ 0.3 m, the turbine runs at a low
rotational speed, which does not give any significant value. For
Tp ¼ 3.5 s and SL ¼ 0.5 m, the turbine rotational speed is high, going
far beyond the rated speed of the generator. Apart from these two
conditions, the no-load test was carried out for the rest of the seven
combinations, as shown in Table 4. During the no-load test, the
generator is not connected to any external resistance. For testing
with various loads, the generator is connected with a variable
resistor. For each of the seven combinations showed in Table 4, the
experiment is carried out for five different resistance values (10, 25,
50,75 and 100 U). So, a total of 35 different combinations are used
during the experiment with resistive load condition. For each
combination, the data is taken for 5 min, and each data is taken
three times to minimize any uncertainty in the experiment results.
6. Uncertainty in measurement
For any experimental measurement, an uncertainty analysis is
necessary for the results to be used to their fullest value [40]. The
uncertainty analysis of the experimental result gives an indication
of the accuracy of the measured value. The uncertainty in any
measurement has two main sources: a systematic error arises from
the instrument, which is fixed during the experiment, and a
random error that occurs due to environmental conditions. The
systematic error is defined by the accuracy of the instrument (B),
whereas the random error is defined by the precision limit (P). For
any experiment, there are two types of variables: the primary
variables are measured directly using the instruments, whereas the
secondary variables (also known as derived variables) are derived
using a data reduction equation based on the measured primary
variables. Following the methods prescribed in Ref. [41], the com-
bined uncertainty of the primary variable (UP) is defined by Eq. (2),
6 T.K. Das et al. / Energy 206 (2020) 118205

Fig. 5. Instrumentation in the experimental setup 1. Multifunction transmitter 2. Differential pressure gauge 3. Torque transducer 4. Generator 5. Resistor 6. Data acquisition system
7. Computer 8. Variable frequency drive.

Table 3
Accuracy and range of measuring instruments.

Parameter Instrument Range Accuracy (% of FS)

Differential pressure ABB 266DSH ±5 kPa ±0.06

Torque Sensor Technology RWT 421 torque transducer 0-21 Nm ±0.25
Rotational speed Sensor Technology RWT 421 torque transducer 0e15000 rpm ±1
Airflow rate DEBIMO airflow measurement blade 0e1.25 m3/s ±5
Voltage RISH Ducer TV 808 0e300 V ±0.2
Current RISH Ducer TV 808 with shunt 0-5 Amp ±0.2

uncertainties in the primary variable propagate through the data

h i1 2 =
reduction equation and create uncertainty in the secondary vari-
UP ¼ B 2 þ P 2 (2)
able. A Taylor series method propagation approach is used here to
define the uncertainty of the secondary variables [42]. If a sec-
where, ondary variable R is made up of several primary variables Xi, such as
R ¼ R (X1, X2, … … …., Xj), then the uncertainty of the secondary
S
P ¼ pXffiffiffiffi (3a) variable based on the Taylor series propagation is defined by
N
" 2  2 !2 #1 2
=
vR vR vR
2 3 1
= US ¼ U þ U þ…þ U (4)
2
vX1 P;X1 vX2 P;X2 vXj P;Xj
1 X N
SX ¼ 4 ðX
XÞ25
(3b)
N
1 i¼1 i
where UP;Xi are the uncertainties of the primary variables.
In the present experiment, the primary variables are the volume
flow rate, differential pressure, torque, rotational speed, generator
1 XN
X¼ X (3c) current, and generator voltage. The derived variables are the toque
N i¼1 i coefficient, pressure drop coefficient, flow coefficient, and gener-
ator output power. Table 5 gives the combined uncertainties of
where N is the number of measurements, Xi is each measurement variables calculated using Eq. (2) and Eq. (4).
value and X is the mean value of all measurements. When a data
reduction equation is used to measure a secondary variable, the
7. Results and discussions

Table 4 Once the VFD is started at a certain frequency, and the piston
Different combinations used for the experiment. starts reciprocating inside the chamber, the turbine takes some
VFD frequency 18.5 Hz 22.5 Hz 26.5 Hz time to reach a stable rotational speed. Fig. 6(a) shows the com-
parison of starting characteristics for two different piston stroke
Time period (Tp) 5.5 s 4.5 s 3.5 s
length at the same time period. Whereas, Fig. 6(b) shows the
Stroke length (SL) x 0.4 m 0.5 m 0.3 m 0.4 m 0.5 m 0.3 m 0.4 m x comparison of starting characteristics for two different piston time
Resistance 10,25,50,75,100 U
period at the same stroke length. When the piston reciprocates at
 T.K. Das et al. / Energy 206 (2020) 118205
Table 5
Uncertainty of the primary and secondary variables.
Primary Derived
Variable Uncertainty Variable Uncertainty
(% of FS reading) (% of FS reading)
DP 0.2 4 6
Tl, Tnl 0.26 DP* 2.16
u 1.08 T* 2.17
Q 5.9 Pe 0.31
V 0.22
I 0.22
Tp ¼ 4.5sec, there is no significant difference in the time taken to
reach a stable rotational speed for both SL ¼ 0.4 and 0.5 m
(Fig. 6(a)). However, when the piston stroke length is fixed at 0.4 m,
the time taken to reach a stable rotational speed for Tp ¼ 3.5sec is
significantly larger compared to Tp ¼ 4.5sec (Fig. 6(b)). For all sets of
experiments, the maximum Mach number of turbine tip speed is
0.1, and the maximum Reynolds number based on the relative ve-
locity is 2.55  105.
Once the turbine reached a stable rotational speed, the primary
variables are measured and data collected using the data acquisi-
tion system. As the data is periodic in nature, it is easier to make a
comparative study with only one full cycle of piston movement.
Each measured time series data is segregated based on one piston-
cycle, and an ensemble averaging is carried out. An example of
ensemble averaging for differential pressure and no-load torque is
shown in Fig. 7(a) and Fig. 7(b), respectively.
Fig. 8 shows a typical sinusoidal profile of imposed piston ve-
locity. The first half cycle in the figure is for exhalation (when the
piston goes inside the chamber forcing the air out of the duct), and
the second half cycle is for inhalation (when the piston comes back
to its initial position and suck the air inside the duct). Henceforth,
all comparative results are shown for one cycle only.
7.1. No-load test
Fig. 9 shows the comparison of rotational speed and differential
pressure for different stroke lengths and time periods. For
Tp ¼ 5.5 s, the turbine rotational speed at SL ¼ 0.4 m is less, and the
turbine almost stops during the transfer from exhalation to inha-
lation stage of the piston. A similar thing can be noticed for
Tp ¼ 4.5 s and SL ¼ 0.3 m. For Tp ¼ 4.5 s, SL ¼ 0.5 m and Tp ¼ 3.5 s,
SL ¼ 0.4 m, the turbine rotational speed has similar values. For
Fig. 6. Starting characteristics for (a) different stroke length at Tp ¼ 4.5sec (b) different time period at SL ¼ 0.4 m
7
these two cases, the difference between the maximum and mini-
mum rotational speed in one cycle is approximately 10% of the peak
value (Fig. 9(b and c)). This signifies the smooth running of the
turbine. However, when the turbine runs at a low rotational speed,
this fluctuation is more than 20%, as seen in Fig. 9(a). During the
change from exhalation to inhalation stage, the direction of piston
movement does not change instantly-the piston pauses for a short
time and then changes the direction. When the piston operates at a
low Tp, the time taken to change the direction of the piston
movement is less compared to the time taken at high Tp. For this
reason, the fluctuation of maximum to minimum rotational speed
is higher in Fig. 9(a) compared to the fluctuation in Fig. 9(c).
The rotational speed of the turbine has a strong correlation with
the pressure drop across the turbine. Similar to the rotational
speed, for Tp ¼ 4.5 s, SL ¼ 0.5 m and Tp ¼ 3.5 s, SL ¼ 0.4 m, the
pressure difference for these two cases are also in the similar range
as seen from Fig. 9(e and f). There is a difference in peak values of
pressure difference during exhalation and inhalation stage. The
peak value of DP during exhalation is higher compared to the peak
value during inhalation. The possible reason for this could be the
presence of torque transducer and generator, which may create a
blockage for the incoming air. However, this does not have any
significant effect on the rotational speed of the turbine. The peak
value of rotational speed is similar during exhalation and
inhalation.
Fig. 10 shows the comparison of volume flow rate at the inlet of
the duct for different combinations of piston time periods and
stroke lengths. The horizontal axis of Fig. 10 is shown as normalized
time. The inlet velocity of the turbine is calculated from the
measured volume flow rate and the annular inlet area of the tur-
bine duct. As mentioned earlier, the instrument used for measuring
the volume flow rate can only measure flow in one direction. So, all
the experimental volume flow rate measurements shown here are
only for the exhalation stage. The piston motion is numerically
simulated in SolidWorks Simulation Module, and the volume flow
rate from the numerical simulation is compared with the experi-
mental volume flow rate. There is a maximum deviation of 30% in
the measured volume flow rate compared to the numerically
calculated value. This is due to the friction in the piston-cylinder
assembly, which was not considered in the numerical simulation.
For an ideal scenario, the experimentally measured volume flow
rate in the second half cycle (inhalation) should show zero values as
per the instrument used. However, the Q values do not become zero
exactly at t* ¼ 0.5 for all the cases shown in Fig. 10. A deviation can
be seen in Fig. 10 (b), for Tp ¼ 4.5sec, SL ¼ 0.3 and 0.4 m. For all time
8 T.K. Das et al. / Energy 206 (2020) 118205
Fig. 7. Ensemble average of (a) differential pressure (b) torque at Tp ¼ 4.5sec, SL ¼ 0.5 m
periods, as the stroke length is increased, the volume flow rate also
increased. For Tp ¼ 4.5sec, SL ¼ 0.5 m and Tp ¼ 3.5sec, SL ¼ 0.4 m
(Fig. 10(b and c)), the volume flow rate has a constant value in the
inhalation stage. As the piston movement becomes faster with a
lower time period, the air inside the duct could not be emptied
completely after the exhalation phase, and an air accumulation
takes place inside the duct. This could be a probable reason that the
volume flow rate does not show a zero value in the inhalation phase
for these two cases.
Fig. 11 shows the comparison of no-load torque for different
combinations of time-period and stroke lengths. The no-load tor-
que is normalized based on the maximum value of torque. At
Tp ¼ 5.5sec, for SL ¼ 0.4 m, the turbine produces a higher torque
compared to SL ¼ 0.5 m. At Tp ¼ 4.5sec, the torque increases as
stroke length is increased from 0.3 to 0.4 m. However, at SL ¼ 0.5 m,
the produced torque is less than that of SL ¼ 0.4 m. As the stroke
length increases, the volume flow rate through the duct increases.
This increases the velocity of air at the turbine inlet (va) The angle of
attack (a) at the turbine blade is defined by Eq. 5(a,b).
Fig. 8. A typical profile of imposed piston velocity.
 
va
a ¼ tan
1 (5a)
rt u
where,
.  
va ¼ Q P rt2
rh2 (5b)
As va increases, the angle of attack increases. For a certain time
period, at high stroke length, the angle of attack goes beyond the
stall limit. As a result, the torque decreases for high stroke lengths
at Tp ¼ 4.5sec and 5.5 s (Fig. 11(a and b)). For, Tp ¼ 3.5sec, the no-
load torque at SL ¼ 0.4 m is large compared to SL ¼ 0.3 m as seen
in Fig. 11(c).
The exhalation and inhalation stage of the turbine can be further
divided into two phases: the acceleration phase and the decelera-
tion phase (Fig. 8). The combined effect of inlet velocity, turbine
rotational speed, differential pressure and torque in the accelera-
tion and deceleration phase can be analyzed by the following non-
dimensional parameters:
T
Torque coefficient ðT * Þ: (6)
ru2 rt5
DP
Pressure drop coefficient ðDP * Þ: (7)
ru2 rt2
va
Flow coefficient ð4Þ: (8)
rt u
As shown in Fig. 8, the turbine operates in two acceleration and
deceleration phase in one cycle. As the inlet velocity increases, the
turbine rotational speed also increases, keeping the angle of attack
(Eq. (5a)) within the stall limit. However, when the inlet velocity is
high, the angle of attack can go beyond the stall limit. In actual
operation, a by-pass valve is used to avoid the operation of the
turbine at a high angle of attack. In the present laboratory experi-
ment, no by-pass valve is used, and the turbine is let to run for all
angles of attack (or flow coefficients) experienced in a full cycle.
Fig. 12 and Fig. 13 shows the variation of torque coefficient and
pressure drop coefficient during acceleration and deceleration for
two different test conditions. The torque coefficient and pressure
drop coefficient is plotted for different flow coefficients. The flow
coefficient (4) is calculated based on the volume flow rate
measured from the experiment (4-experimental) and based on the
 T.K. Das et al. / Energy 206 (2020) 118205 9

Fig. 9. Comparison of rotational speed (a, b, c) and differential pressure (d, e, f) for different test cases.

volume flow rate calculated numerically (4-numerical). For both
test conditions, the torque coefficient (Figs. 12 (a), Fig.13(a)) shows
a small hysteresis effect in the unstalled region when they are
plotted against 4-experimental values. Beyond the stall point, the
torque coefficient shows a large hysteresis loop. When the torque
coefficient is plotted against 4-numerical values, the torque coef-
ficient shows a hysteresis loop throughout the cycle of operation. A
similar hysteresis loop is visible for the pressure drop coefficient in
Figs. 12(b) and Fig. 13(b).
Such a hysteresis phenomenon happens due to the phase delay
between the conditions imposed by the piston movement and the
conditions near the turbine. This delay is caused by the capacitive
behavior inside the chamber, i.e., the fact that, due to the
compressibility of the air inside it, the instantaneous mass flow
passing through the turbine is not equal to the mass-flow moved by
the piston [43e46]. In the present work, due to the limitation of the
10 T.K. Das et al. / Energy 206 (2020) 118205

Fig. 10. Comparison of inlet volume flow rate at different time period and stroke length (lines with marker-numerically calculated value; lines without marker-experimental value).

instrument, the volume flow rate is measured at a distance 500 mm figures.

away from the turbine inlet. The mass-flow passing through the
measuring instrument is not the actual mass-flow through the
turbine blade. In addition, the mass-flow passing through the
measuring instrument is also different from the mass-flow moved
by the turbine. As a result, there is a difference between the hys-
teresis loops when calculated based on 4-experimental and 4-nu-
merical. Such hysteresis loop should disappear if the flow
coefficient is calculated based on the actual mass-flow through the
turbine [39,47].
7.2. Test with resistive load
An electrical load is a device that consumes electrical energy and
produces a different form of energy. A resistive load takes in the
electrical energy from the generator in the form of current and
produces heat energy. During the no-load test, the terminals of the
generator are not connected, and the circuit is open. During the
load test, the generator is connected to a variable resistor. Due to
the presence of the resistor (i.e., the load), the current produced in
the generator flows through the resistor. This, in effect, changes the
rotational speed and torque characteristics of the turbine. This type
of resistive loading often used as a control technique to control the
rotational speed of the turbine. Although five different resistive
loads are used during the experiment (Table 4), there is no signif-
icant difference seen for 25 U and 75 U with adjacent resistance
values. So only three resistance values are shown in the following
Fig. 14 shows the comparison of output voltage, output current,
the rotational speed of the turbine, and the load torque at
Tp ¼ 4.5sec, SL ¼ 0.4 m for three different resistance values. When
the generator is connected with high resistance, the current passing
through the resistive load is low, and the voltage across the resistive
load is high as per the Ohm’s law. A similar analogy is seen between
the rotational speed and load torque when the resistive load is
varied. The load torque measured by the torque transducer is the
combination of the shaft torque and electromagnetic torque of the
generator, as defined by Eq. (9),
du
J þ Te ¼ Tl (9)
dt
The electromagnetic torque (Te) generated by the turbine is
directly proportional to the armature current of the generator.
When the generator is connected to a high resistive load, the cur-
rent passes through the resistor is low-i.e., electromagnetic torque
produced by the generator is low. As a result, the total torque (Tl)
produced is less when a high resistive load is used.
On the other hand, the electromotive force produced by the
generator is proportional to the rotational speed of the generator
(Eq. (10))
Eemf ¼ Ke u (10)
The increase in resistive loading increases the total
 T.K. Das et al. / Energy 206 (2020) 118205 11

Fig. 11. Comparison of no-load torque at different time period and stroke length.

electromotive force generated in the whole circuit (as the reduction Fig. 15 shows the variation of differential pressure, rotational
in current is less). As a result, the rotational speed is increased with speed, load torque, and electrical power output at Tp ¼ 4.5sec,
the increase in resistive loading. The rotational speed is analogous SL ¼ 0.4 m for three different resistive loads. The electrical power
to the voltage, and the load torque is analogous to current. output is measured by multiplying the voltage and current across

Fig. 12. Variation of (a) torque coefficient and (b) pressure drop coefficient during acceleration and deceleration at Tp ¼ 3.5sec, SL ¼ 0.4 m
12 T.K. Das et al. / Energy 206 (2020) 118205

Fig. 13. Variation of (a) torque coefficient and (b) pressure drop coefficient during acceleration and deceleration at Tp ¼ 4.5sec, SL ¼ 0.5 m

the resistive load. When the generator is connected to a high
resistive load, the turbine rotational speed is higher compared to
that of low resistive load. This, in turn, affects the pressure drop
across the turbine. The pressure drop across the turbine blades is
higher for high resistive loading (shown in the zoomed section,
Fig. 15). However, the difference is not very significant for the
resistance values used in the experiment. The torque and the
electrical power output are shown in a normalized form with
respect to the maximum value in the particular cycle. As shown in
Fig. 14, for a high resistance value, the voltage across the resistance

Fig. 14. Comparison of (a) voltage (b) current (c) rotational speed and (d) load-torque for different resistance at Tp ¼ 4.5sec, SL ¼ 0.4 m
 T.K. Das et al. / Energy 206 (2020) 118205
Fig. 15. Comparison of pressure difference (DP), rotational speed (u), torque (Tl) and
electrical power output (Pe) for different resistance at Tp ¼ 4.5sec, SL ¼ 0.4 m
is high, whereas the current is low. However, the electrical power
output is higher when a high resistive load is used.
Fig. 16 shows the variation of electrical power output at two
different resistive loadings for two different conditions: when the
time period is fixed, and the stroke length is varied (Fig. 16(a)) and
Fig. 16. Comparison of electrical power output for different resistive loads at (a) Tp ¼ 4.5 s and SL ¼ 0.4 m, 0.5 m (b) SL ¼ 0.4 m and Tp ¼ 3.5sec, 4.5 s.
13
when the time period is varied keeping the stroke length fixed
(Fig. 16(b)). The electrical power output is shown in a normalized
form with respect to the maximum value. It can be seen that the
electrical power output increases with increasing the resistive
loading irrespective of the time period and stroke length. The
electrical output is measured by multiplying the output current and
voltage across the resistive load. As the resistance is increased, the
output current decreases, and the output voltage increases. How-
ever, the increment is voltage is more compared to the reduction in
current when the resistance values are increased. As a result, the
power output is increased with increment in resistance values. The
power output is also affected by the stroke length and time period
of the piston. When the turbine is connected with a resistive load,
at high stroke length and low time period, the turbine runs close to
its design speed where the turbine produces maximum output. For
the two conditions shown with the solid line in Fig. 16, the power
output is significantly large compared to the other cases.
Fig. 17 shows the torque coefficient for different loading condi-
tions at Tp ¼ 3.5 s and SL ¼ 0.4 m. As shown in Fig. 14, the peak
torque decreases, and the rotational speed increases with
increasing load. As a result, the peak torque coefficient over the
complete cycle has a higher value for less resistive loading. How-
ever, the turbine stalls at a flow coefficient of 0.23. So the turbine
has an operating range up to 4¼ 0.23. Within this region, the peak
torque coefficient is produced for high resistive loading. The tur-
bine shows a large hysteresis loop for small resistive loading, and
the size of the loop decreases with the increase in loading.
8. Conclusion
An experimental analysis of a biplane Wells turbine is carried
out subjected to a periodic airflow and varying load conditions.
Different test cases are examined by varying the stroke length and
time period of the piston. A comparative analysis is presented for
different test conditions based on the measured variables. The
turbine takes some time in the beginning to reach a stable oper-
ating speed. The time taken to reach the operating speed is more for
a lower piston time period. There is an asymmetry in pressure drop
across the turbine during exhalation and inhalation stage. However,
this does not have any significant effect on the rotational speed of
14
Fig. 17. Comparison of torque coefficient for different resistive loading at Tp ¼ 3.5 s and
SL ¼ 0.4 m
the turbine.
The turbine shows a hysteresis behavior in the pressure drop
coefficient and torque coefficient during the acceleration and
deceleration phase. The hysteresis is caused due to the capacitive
behavior of the OWC chamber-turbine system. The hysteresis
phenomenon is studied for different flow coefficients based on the
numerically calculated volume flow rate as well as the measured
volume flow rate. The hysteresis loop is smaller for experimentally
evaluated values of 4 compared to the numerically calculated
values of 4. This suggests the presence of capacitive behavior and
change of actual mass-flow rate from the piston to the turbine inlet.
The turbine power output is calculated for different resistive
loading at different flow conditions. The turbine rotational speed
increases with increasing resistive load, whereas the torque
generated is reduced. This behavior is analogous to the output
voltage and current across the resistive load. The pressure drop
across the turbine changes as the turbine rotational speed is
affected by the resistive loading. At higher resistive loading, the
electric power output from the generator is more for higher stroke
length and lower piston time period. By using different resistive
loading, the turbine can be controlled to operate for maximum
power output. The performance parameters as a function of the
flow-coefficient for the test with resistive load shows the turbine
starts to stall at 4 ¼ 0.23. So, the turbine should be operated below
this flow coefficient for a stall-free operation.
Funding
This work was financially supported by the Department of
Ocean Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras,
India.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Tapas K. Das: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation,
Formal analysis, Investigation, Writing - original draft, Visualiza-
tion. Kumud Kumar: Formal analysis, Investigation. Abdus Samad:
Writing - review & editing, Supervision.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing
financial interests or personal relationships that could have
T.K. Das et al. / Energy 206 (2020) 118205
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgment
The authors acknowledge the suggestions provided by R.
Suchithra during manuscript preparation and R. Anandanarayanan
during the preparation of experimental setup.
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