Wave energy harvesting turbine: Effect of hub-to-tip profile modification

The present paper investigates the leading edge (LE) undulations of a Wells turbine blade through numerical analysis. The aspiration for this modification came from humpback whales, which have uneven protrusions at the LE of their pectoral flippers. The flippers help whales to maneuver during swimming. The work is performed by using three-dimensional steady, incompressible Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with turbulent closer model. The LE of the turbine blades is modified with undulations of three different amplitudes: 1mm, 2.5mm, and 4mm. The results show that the undulation changes the turbine performance. The amplitude 2.5mm gives the peak performance. The comparison between blades with different amplitudes and the reference blade has been discussed throughout this study.