This paper presents the experimental results of effect of guide vane shape on performance of an impulse turbine for wave energy conversion. Two types of guide vanes are considered in the present study: two-dimensional (2D) guide vanes and three-dimensional (3D) guide vanes. The previous investigations by the authors revealed that the 2D guide vanes cause large recirculation zones at leading edge of downstream guide vanes, which affect the performance of turbine considerably. In order to improve the performance of turbine, three-dimensional guide vanes are designed based on free-vortex theory. Detailed aerodynamic and performance tests have been conducted on impulse turbine with the two types of guide vanes. The experiments have been conducted under various inlet conditions such as steady, sinusoidal and random (real Sea) flows. From the results, it was proved that the efficiency of impulse turbine has been improved for 4.5% points due to 3D guide vanes. The hysteric characteristic has been noticed from the experimental results of impulse turbine with sinusoidal and random flow inlet conditions. Furthermore, it was investigated that the performance of turbine is considerably more during deceleration of inlet flow than the acceleration in a half cycle of sinusoidal wave. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.