Optimal design of radial inflow turbine for ocean thermal energy conversion based on the installation angle of nozzle blade

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC), as a new type of renewable energy, has huge development potential. Turbine is the most critical component in the ocean thermal energy conversion system, which directly determines the performance and energy conversion efficiency of the system. Therefore, the optimal design of turbines is very important to improve the efficiency of ocean thermal energy conversion. Based on the full consideration of the small temperature difference application characteristics of ocean thermal energy conversion and the special thermophysical properties of organic working fluids, this paper designs an ammonia working centripetal turbine with a power of 100 kW for OTEC applications, and then analyzes the effect of different geometric parameters on turbine performance. At the same time, the key parameters of the turbine are optimized based on full three-dimensional CFD numerical simulation analysis. It's shown that the nozzle blade installation angle has a very important impact on the performance of the turbine. Through optimization, when the nozzle blade installation angle reaches 30.5 & DEG;, the efficiency is 91.77%, which is 6.25% points higher than the design value. The internal flow field performance is the best without obvious shock wave and reverse vortex phenomenon, which further improves the efficiency of the turbine and improves the internal flow.& nbsp;(c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.