Proceedings of the Eleventh (2001) hlternational Offshore and Polar Enghleering Conference Stavanger, Norway, June 17-22, 2001

Copyright 2001 by Tile International Society of Offshore and Polar Engineers ISBN 1-880653-51-6 (SeO; ISBN 1-880653-52--4 (VoL I); ISSN 1098-6189 (SeO

Stress Analysis of Impulse Turbine Blades

A. Thakker, H.B. Khaleeq, F. Hourigan and J. Jarvis
Uni versi t y of L i m e r i c k L i m e r i c k , Ireland

ABSTRACT A finite element stress analysis has been carried out on two configurations of impulse turbine blade, hollow and solid. The hollow turbine blade has significant manufacturing advantages over the solid blade and it is an aim of the analysis to compare how well the blades support the forces exerted on them. The centrifugal and aerodynamic forces on the blades have been calculated. Safe working stresses and strains were identified and post solution checks were carried out and confirmed the order of magnitude of the finite element results. Visualisations of the finite element results are also presented. It was found that the stresses produced in both the hollow and solid blades do not exceed safe working stresses. Based on this analysis, the hollow blade variant was selected for manufacture due to its cost advantages and superior lead-time characteristic over the solid blade. KEYWORDS" Wave Energy conversion, Impulse Turbine, Finite Element Analysis, Rapid Prototyping. NOMENCLATURE SYMBOL A E UNITS m2 GPa N
m 4

SUB SC R IPT S b r z INTRODUCTION

Blade Radial Number of Rotor Blades

Kg s-2
1r m

L rR
GREEK LETTERS p

m m UNITS kg/m 3 MPa rad/s Degrees

DESCRIPTION Cross Sectional Area Young's Modulus Centrifugal Force on Blade Second Moment of Area Spring Constant Chord Length of Rotor Blade Length of Blade in Radial Direction (Blade Height) Mean Radius DESCRIPTION Mass Density Stress Angular Velocity Hub to Tip Ratio Setting Angle of Fixed Guide Vane

For the last two decades, Scientists have been investigating and defining different methods for power extraction from wave motion. These devices utilize the principle of an Oscillating Water Column (OWC). OWC based Wave Energy Power Plants convert wave energy into low-pressure pneumatic power in the form of bi-directional airflow. Self-rectifying air turbines (which are capable of operating uni-directionally in bi-directional airflow) are used to extract mechanical shaft power, which is further converted into electrical power by a generator. Two different turbines are currently in use around the world for wave energy power generation, Wells Turbine, introduced by Dr. A. A. Wells in 1976 and Impulse Turbine with guide vanes by Kim et al. (1988). Both these turbines are currently in operation in different power plants in Europe and Asia on experimental basis. Currently, research around the world is focused on improving the performance of both these turbines under different operating conditions. The ultimate purpose of this research is to improve the performance of Impulse turbine with fixed guide vanes for Wave Energy Power conversion by modifying different blade and guide vane geometry parameters, (Khaleeq, 2000). Therefore, as the starting point, it was decided to use a different hub to tip ratio of 0.6 compared to the already published and established optimum value of 0.7 (Setoguchi, 1999). The blades were manufactured using FDM Rapid prototyping machine using ABS Plastic. Before going for this type of manufacturing technique, a detailed stress analysis was carried out. This paper reports the findings of those analyses, which provided the base for the manufacture of blades.

m ~ 0

589

DESIGN AND M A N U F A C T U R I N G OF IMPULSE TURBINE A 0.6m diameter Impulse turbine rotor with a hub to tip ratio of 0.6 was designed and manufactured at University of Limerick, Ireland for the said performance analysis. Basic blade and guide vane profile parameters were based on the optimum design parameters published by Prof. T. Setoguchi in 1999 (Setoguchi, 1999) and Setoguchi et al, 2001. Blade chord length is 100mm. A 2D sketch of 0.6m turbine rotor and guide vanes is shown in figure 1.

term mechanical properties of plastics do not produce design data: design data must be obtained from long term tests.

Blade configuration
Two blade configurations are considered: a solid blade with an

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Figure 2 The Hollow Impulse Turbine Blade

Figure 1.0.6m Impulse Turbine with fixed guide vanes A 3D model of blades and hub was generated in CAD package ProEngineer v2000i. Considering the complex blade shape, it was decided to use FDM Fused Decomposition Modeling) Rapid prototyping machine using ABS Plastic. Therefore, it was necessary to check for the credibility of the ABS material under given operating conditions. A stress analysis was carried out. The results are discussed in a later section. Based on this analysis, the blades were manufactured. The details can be found in Thakker et al., 2000 (Thakker, 2000b and c). Two sets of mirror image copper guide vanes with a chord length of 131.38mm were manufactured using conventional sheet/metal and welding procedures.

F I N I T E E L E M E N T ANALYSIS

Mechanical properties of ABS

ABS (Acrylonitirle-butadiene-styrene) is an engineering plastic generally considered to have superior strength, stiffness and toughness to many plastics. It is classed as an amorphous plastic. As such, ABS is a visco-elastic material, which means that it its mechanical characteristics reflect the characteristics of both a viscous liquid and elastic solid. Therefore when a visco-elastic material is subjected to a stress, it exhibits viscous flow (dissipating energy) and elastic displacement (storing energy). The properties of visco-elastic materials like ABS are temperature, time and strain rate dependent. As a result, the conventional stress-strain test frequently used to describe the shortFigure 3 The Solid Impulse Turbine Blade internal hole and a hollow blade also with an internal hole, as shown in figures 2 and 3. Both blades have the same external geometry. The attraction of the hollow blade is that it uses a smaller volume of material. The blades will be manufactured by a rapid-prototyping machine that lays strips of ABS to make up the blade. The speed of this process is heavily dependent on the volume of the article to be produced. It has been found that a solid blade takes approximately 30 hours to manufacture using this process. This led to a hollow

590

configuration being investigated. It was found that this hollow configuration took 17 hours to manufacture; an impressive improvement in productivity for the process.

Centrifugal Loading
The software allows the user to specify the angular velocity and the axis about which the component rotates.

Finite Element Analysis Setup

Design Stresses and Strains

Designing products with thermoplastics such as ABS is more complicated than with metals. Metals display short properties that hold well for the long term at moderate temperatures, only exhibiting phenomena such as creep in high temperature applications such as gas turbine blades. But thermoplastics show these properties at room temperature, and these must be considered when designing in thermoplastics. These considerations result in the selection of design stresses and strains. West (1986) gives 10 MPa as a general design stress. Crawford (1998) cites British Standard Code of Practice CP231 as recommending a value of 6.3 MPa as a safe working stress for ABS designing against creep rupture in pipes. The tensile strength for ABS obtained from stress-strain tests is in the region of 36 to 40 MPa, so it is clear that these strengths are not available to the designer in the long term. Design strains for ABS is known to be of the order of 10 -2. Two scenarios of angular velocity are considered" 36.65 rad/s and 194 rad/s. 194rad/s is the maximum angular velocity that the test apparatus can achieve. The solid models of the impulse turbine blades (solid and hollow) were created in Pro-Engineer 2000 and were analysed Pro-Engineer in integrated mode with Pro-Mechanica.

Constraints
The blade is bolted to the hub, thus the blade was constrained to be fixed in all directions on the inside surface of the hole as shown in figure 4. Under loading, the blade geometry did not deform so as to interfere with the hub. The blade material (ABS) is taken as isotropic and is characterised in the following way in the model: Table 1 Material Characteristics

Material Constant Young's Modulus Poisson's Ratio Mass Density Aerodynamic Loading

Value 2.5 GPa 0.41050 kg / m 3

Axial Loading
O r q ~ i ~ l Model koa~: Combi ~olior~
Pr'~cipal millimeter Uni 8fre~ v0n Ni~e~ (Maxlmum~ ~,~ R~x , I . Z 3 6 7 E + 0 I ~ Min ~ 8 7 9 8 4 E - 0 4 a.~71e*~o g.497e+~ 1.NTN~+N~ 79Dm-~4

Tangential Loading
The tangential thrust on the turbine can be found by applying the momentum equation in the tangential direction with a consideration of the velocity triangles for the impulse turbine.

New'on Seco~

Axial Loading
The pressure drop across the stage was estimated and applied to the rotor. As a result, this value represents a conservative estimate of the actual pressure drop across the rotor.

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Figure 5 Von Mises Stress in the Hollow Turbine Blade at 194 rad/s under combined loading A total load of 28N was modeled in the axial direction as shown in figure 4.

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Tangential Loading

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A total load of 0.89N was modeled in the tangential direction as shown in figure 4.

Centrifugal Loading
The centrifugal load was located at the center of rotation of the rotor. Two scenarios were run, one with the rotor having and axial velocity of 36.65 rad/s and another with an axial velocity of 194 rad/s (194 rad/s is the maximum rotational speed of the test apparatus).

Figure 4 The impulse turbine blade with the tangential, axial and centrifugal loads applied. The constraint is also visible.

Convergence
The convergence method was single pass adaptive and the solution converged to within 1.2% of the maximum principal stress on RMS stress error.

CP231 was written on foot of the failure of plastic pipes that had been subjected to moderate pressures over the long term. 591

Finite Element Results

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In figures 5 through 8, Contour plots are presented of the von Mises stresses for the turbine blades, both hollow and solid and at both values of angular velocity. The nominal stress at 194 rad/s in both hollow and solid blade configurations is 1.8 MPa and 0.04 MPa at 36.65 rad/s.
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Figure 8 Von Mises Stress in the Solid Turbine Blade at 36.65 rad/s under combined loading

Equation 1

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Figure 6 Von Mises Stress in the Hollow Turbine Blade at 36.65 rad/s under combined loading
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In figures 9 and 10, a comparison of the nominal stresses for the finite element results and the results of hand calculations is presented, covering the solid and hollow configurations and both values of angular velocity. In the regions away from the bolt area, the stresses are very close to those predicted by the post solution checks.

Extension in the Radial Direction

Modeling the blade as a spring, the extension in the radial direction can be written as follows:

Equation 2

F=kx
Figure 7 Von Mises Stress in the Solid Turbine Blade at 194 rad/s under combined loading To obtain a more conservative view, contour plots of the maximum principal stress were also obtained. These are presented in the appendix for the solid blade. Where F is the centrifugal force on the blade, k is the spring constant for the blade and x is the displacement in the radial direction. The blade spring constant can be calculated from the following equation:

Equation 3
Where E is Young's Modulus, A is the cross sectional area of the blade and L is the length of the blade in the radial direction.

Post Solution Checks

In order to have confidence in the results of the finite element analysis, it is necessary to confirm the results with hand calculations or handbook data. These results must agree within an order of magnitude for the results to be taken as reliable.

k-~

EA L

Centrifugal Loading
A consideration of differential radial elements and defining the cross sectional average radial stresses as r an estimate of the centrifugal stress in the blade can be made as follows.

592

Table 2 Post Solution Checks for extension in the radial direction

0.6

Hollow Blade Solid Blade Mass (kg) FEA Extension (m) [at 36.65 rad/s] Extension by Hand (m) [at 36.65 rad/s] Agreement [FEA/Hand as a percentage] FEA Extension (m) [at 194 rad/s] Extension by Hand (m) [at 194 rad/s] ., Agreement [FEA]Hand as a percentage]
0.1538 2.38x10 -6 1.81 xlO -06 131% 6.67 xl 0-5 5.08x10 -5 131% 0.2638 4.02xl 0 -06 3.96 x 10-06 102% 0.1 1.10 xl0 -04
0 , D

0.4 0.3

[] Axial Loading (Hollow Blade) [] Axial Loading (Solid Blade)

0.2

1.12 xl0 -4 98%

Nominal Stress

Post Solution

Again the results from hand calculations are in satisfactory agreement with the finite element results.

Figure 11 A Comparison of the Nominal Stresses and the Post-Solution Results due to Axial Loading in the Solid and Hollow Impulse Turbine Blades

1.2

2"
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0.8

"~" 0.6
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[] Centrifugal loading only (Hollow Blade 194 rad/s) [] Centrifugal loading only (Solid Blade 194 rad/s) i

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0.4

0.2

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0.018 0.016 0.014 0.012 0.01 0.008 0.006 0.004 0.002

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Nominal Stress Post Solution

i i
i

D Tangential Loading (Hollow Blade) N Tangential Loading (Solid Blade)

Nominal Stress

Post Solution

Figure 9 A Comparison of Nominal Stresses and Post Solution results for Centrifugal Loading (194 rad/s) in the Solid and Hollow Impulse Turbine Blades

Figure 12 A Comparison of the Nominal Stresses and the Post-Solution Results due to Tangential Loading in the Solid and Hollow Impulse Turbine Blades

0.045 0.04 0.035 ~, 0.03 0.025

t~ 0

Axial and Tangential Loading

[] Centrifugal loading only (Hollow Blade, 36.65 rad/s) [] Centrifugal loading only (Solid Blade, 36.65 rad/s)

Solid Blade
In confirming the results of the axial loading we consider a simplified geometry of a solid beam of rectangular cross section. To produce an estimate of stress due to axial and tangential loading, the following well known result for stress in bending beams having at least a single symmetrical cross-section, where either My or Mx are zero, is used, Equation 4

0.02

(b 0.015 0.01 0.005 0

Nominal S t r e s s Post Solution

M~y
I xx

orO" Z = ~

3'

Figure 10 A Comparison of the Nominal Stresses and Post Solution results for Centrifugal Loading (36.65rad/s) in the Solid and Hollow Impulse Turbine Blades

I YY

593

Hollow Blade
This procedure is repeated for the hollow blade, this time considering a hollow section beam having a wall thickness of 3ram, similar to the actual turbine blade.

force on the turbine blades, thus it is important to consider the full range of operating conditions that the turbine will experience, particularly for results at low angular velocities. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors would like to acknowledge the guidance and help extended by Prof. T. Setoguchi, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Saga University, Japan. The authors would also like to acknowledge the financial support given by the Wave Energy Research Team (WERT), Dept. of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Limerick and the Electricity Supply Board International. In addition, the authors would also like to thank all the members of the Wave Energy Research Team for their support and assistance. REFERENCES

Accuracy of the Finite Element Results

These show satisfactory order of magnitude accuracy in approximating the nominal stresses in the blade due to the centrifugal, axial and tangential loading cases. Thus, having confirmed the range of stresses we would expect from hand calculations, we can be confident in the finite element results. DISCUSSION West [ 1] gives a stress of 10 MPa as a general design stress for ABS. The vendors of the rapid prototyping machine recommend that the strength of the material be corrected by a factor of 0.8 to take account of the fact that the machine builds up the component in layers (the layers are laid down to form the blade, proceeding radially outward from where the blade is mounted to the hub). From the results of the finite element analysis it is clear that a sizeable factor of safety is available with respect to this design stress, even when the correction factor of 0.8 is taken into account. Generally, the dominant force in this stress analysis is the centrifugal force, but at the lower angular velocity, the most important force is in fact the axial load. All things being equal, one would generally expect the axial load on an impulse turbine to be small, since the impulse turbine at its design point does not experience an appreciable pressure drop across the rotor (in fact a slightly negative degree of reaction might not be unexpected). However, for this bi-directional airflow application, the design point is only one of an infinite number of operating points that the turbine routinely sees as the airflow rises from zero to the maximum amplitude of flow velocity and back down again. As a consequence of the significant amount of time spent away from the design point, the result of negligible pressure drop across the rotor is no longer valid and an appreciable axial force is present. With computational results of any kind, it is critically important that the analyst be able to check the validity of the results, either experimentally or using hand calculations. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD), for example, in attempting to describe such a complex set of phenomena, must, as a general rule, be compared to experiment in order to have confidence in the results. Finite element stress analysis results must also be evaluated, but the fact that stress analysis is so much more tractable a problem than fluid dynamics means that the analyst has analytical solutions to many situations of engineering interest, in contrast with CFD. It is, then, possible to use hand calculations to carry out post-solution checks for finite element stress analysis results. In all combinations of blade configuration and angular velocities, the strains are of order 10 .3 or lower, lower than the design strains recommended for thermoplastics. CONCLUSION The finite element analysis indicates that the solid and hollow blade will satisfactorily support the forces exerted on it under the combined effects of centrifugal, axial and tangential loadings studied here. Given the shorter manufacturing time and cost advantages associated with the hollow blade, the hollow blade is the chosen blade variant. The general result of negligible pressure drop across the impulse turbine rotor would produce an underestimation of the maximum axial 594

Crawford, R.J. (1998). Plastics Engineering, Bunerworth Heinemann. Hill, Phillip, Peterson, Carl (1992). Mechanics and Thermodynamics of Propulsion, Addison Wesley Publishing Company. Khaleeq, H.B. (2000). "Design analysis of 0.6m Impulse Turbine with fixed guide vanes for wave energy conversion". Proceedings of 4 th Sir Bernard Crossland Symposium, 6-7 December 2000, UCD, Dublin, Ireland. Kim, T.W., Kaneko, K., Setoguchi, T., Inoue, M., (1988). "Aerodynamic performance of an Impulse turbine with self-pitchcontrolled guide vanes for wave power generator". Proceedings of the 1st KSMY-JSME Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference, Korea. Setoguchi, T. Santhakumar, S., Maeda, H., Takao, M. and Kaneko, K., (2001). "A review of Impulse Turbines for wave energy conversion" Renewable Energy 23 (2001), pp 261-292. Setoguchi, T., (1999). "A review of impulse turbine for wave power energy conversion". ~Ilaakker, A., Khaleeq, H.B., and Setoguchi, T., (2000a). "Performance comparison of 0.3m and 0.6m Impulse turbine with fixed guide vanes Part I". Proceedings of the 4 'h European Wave Energy Conference, Aalborg, Denmark. Thakker, A., Sheahan, C., Frawley, P., Khaleeq, H.B., (2000b). "The concurrent engineering approach to the manufacture of Impulse turbine blades". Proceedings of the 4 th International Conference on Managing Innovative Manufacturing (MIM 2000), Birmingham, UK. Thakker, A., Sheahan, C., Frawley, P., Khaleeq, H.B., (2000c). "The concurrent engineering approach to the manufacture of Impulse turbine blades using Rapid Prototyping Machine". Proceedings of the I7 th Annual Conference of the Irish Manufacturing Committee (IMC-I7), Galway, Ireland. West, George H. (1986). Engineering Design in Plastic: Data and Applications Guide, London: Plastics and Rubber Institute.

Appendix A

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Figure A1 Maximum principal stress in the solid blade at a rotational speed of 194 rad/s under combined loading

Figure A3 Maximum Principal Strain for the Hollow Blade at a rotational speed of 36.65 rad/s under combined loading

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Figure A2 Maximum principal stress in the solid blade at a rotational speed of 36.65 rad/s under combined loading

Figure A4 Maximum Principal Strain for the Hollow Blade at a rotational speed of 194 rad/s under combined loading

595