Performance Analysis on Monoplane, Biplane, and Contra-Rotating Well's Turbine

A renewable energy source is a promising technology; however, the cost, stability, and feasibility are difficult to attain compared to non-renewable energy. In this study, the researchers constructed a testing rig that assessed the different designs of Well's turbine rotors. The output power was measured by varying the turbine parameter such as the tip clearance, hub-to-tip ratio, and turbine configuration: monoplane, biplane, and contra-rotating. The Full Fractional design was used to facilitate the design of the experiment. A statistical software tool, Minitab 17 was used to perform the design of experiment (DOE) that helped the researchers to investigate the effects of the input data to the response at the same time. The application of full factorial design saved time, testing, and resources. The turbine rotors were fabricated using a 3D printer with Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) filament. The results of the experiment showed the best combination, which is the biplane configuration, with 1% tip clearance and 0.6 hub-to-tip ratio, an average output power of 15.6204 watts with 94.3548% confidence. Also, it was observed that the three chosen parameters have no interaction within the range of values of the parameters. The DOE revealed that turbine configuration and tip clearance are the only significant parameters and the hub- to-tip ratio is not significant having greater than 0.05 p-value.