Biomimetic Stator Vane Design for Radial Turbines in Waste Heat Recovery Applications

Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) systems are widely used for converting low-temperature waste heat into useful power, but their overall efficiency depends heavily on the turbine's performance, particularly the stator vane design in radial turbines. This study introduces a biomimetic approach to turbine design by implementing cambered stator vanes inspired by bird feather geometry. These specially shaped vanes are added to a radial inflow turbine and compared to a traditional design that uses straight (symmetric) vanes. The new cambered design helps guide the airflow more effectively, leading to higher tangential speeds and better energy transfer. Simulations show that this design increases the turbine's power output from 388.6 kW to 394.87 kW and improves the system's overall efficiency from 8.78% to 10.12%. A detailed study of different camber levels found that moderate curvatures (around 8-12%) gave the best results. Overall, this study demonstrates that implementing biomimetic cambered stator vanes in radial turbines can significantly enhance turbine performance and improve cycle-level efficiency in ORC systems for waste heat recovery.