Experimental Study of an Axial Turbine
for Wave Energy Conversion
Kumud Kumar, Tapas K. Das , R. Srikanth, and Abdus Samad
Abstract With the growing menace of increase in population and pollution, renew-
able sources of energy are being preferred over the fast depleting fossil fuels. Ocean
wave energy is one such form of renewable source with a huge potential all around the
globe. Wave energy conversion (WEC) devices areused to harness the energy from
ocean waves. An oscillating water column (OWC) is a WEC device, which uses an
axial turbine to convert wave energy into useful electrical energy. The experimental
setup designed and assembled at Wave Energy and Fluids Engineering Laboratory,
IIT Madras tested the turbine subjected to bidirectional airflow. The objective of the
preliminary experiment is to measure the rotational speed and pressure drop across
the turbine. The variable parameters are stroke length and time period of the oscil-
lating piston, which simulates different ocean wave conditions. A comparative study
of the parameters is carried out and reported in this article.
Keywords Wells turbine · Wave energy · Experimental study · OWC
Nomenclature
α Angle of attack (degree)
F
ax
Axial force component (N)
F
tan
Tangential force component (N)
K. Kumar · T. K. Das (B ) · R. Srikanth · A. Samad
Wave Energy and Fluids Engineering Lab, Ocean Engineering Department,
IIT Madras, Chennai, India
e-mail: mech.tapas@gmail.com
K. Kumar
e-mail: kumud142k@gmail.com
R. Srikanth
e-mail: srikanthrangisetty@gmail.com
A. Samad
e-mail: samad@iitm.ac.in
© Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
S. Vijayan et al. (eds.), Trends in Manufacturing and Engineering Management,
Lecture Notes in Mechanical Engineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4745-4_83
953