Remote River Energy System: An open source low maintenance turbine design for remote areas

Axial flow hydro-kinetic turbines convert the kinetic energy of a flowing fluid into electrical energy, and can be designed for deployment in a wide range of locations. As relatively recent technology, these designs are often high in cost, complex, and require specialist maintenance and materials. This is not viable for many communities in developing countries, which may subsequently remain reliant on fossil fuels. A remote river energy system has been designed to be built and maintained using minimal equipment, with components that can be readily obtained. A formal design process has been used with design review and feedback stages; design tools included Simulink modelling, FEA, CFD, nodal analysis and flume testing. Only a handful of components such as the turbine blades require specialist machining and maintenance. The results demonstrate how an effective water turbine with a 3kW output can be theoretically produced and maintained without an over-reliance on specialised components and tools, thereby producing a more economically viable water turbine for use in developing countries. Open source distribution of the design drawings will facilitate application of the design and improvements by other stakeholders. The design study presented here is a platform for prototype technology trials to further develop the concept.

Perancangan Pembangkit Listrik Pikohydro Dengan Tipe Turbin Screw

The screw type water turbine is one type of water turbine that has the potential to generate electricity on a small scale that is environmentally friendly, where this screw type water turbine is very suitable for rivers and irrigation flows in the territory of Indonesia because the use or operation of this turbine only requires low turbine head, looking at the potential for irrigation river water flow with a discharge range of 0.01-0.1 m3/s located in the lowlands in a Karawang district, it is possible to install or apply this screw type water turbine. In this study aims to be able to utilize the source of irrigation flow so that it can be converted into a source of electrical energy that can be utilized by local residents and for lighting on roads that are still poorly lit. In the process of designing a screw type water turbine, mechanical calculations are carried out to determine thedimensions of the turbine blades, turbine shaft, transmission systems such as pulleys and belts, as well as the power that can be generated by the turbine, with a relative head between 0.5 meters, 0.75 meters, and 0.9 meters and determine the correct components. The results of this calculation are obtained in the form of output power from each different head height for head 0.5, the power obtained is 220.89795 watts, for the 0.75 m head, the power is 394.29519 watts, and for the height 0.9, the output power is 356.13926 watts, the results of the design will then be made and will be realized.

Optimization of Reaction Typed Water Turbine in Very Low Head Water Resources for Pico Hydro

The purpose of this research is to investigate the dominant parameters that influence the optimum performance of reaction typed turbine at very low water head. The concepts of conservation of mass, momentum and energy are utilised to explore performance characteristics using a graphical technique. Parametric analysis of the governing equation and experimental results were performed to show that the turbine diameter and nozzle exit area has a dynamic response to mass flow rate, angular speed, output power and efficiency. Depending on the nozzle diameter of (0.01 m, 0.006 m, and 0.008 m) and turbine pipe size with (diameter of 0.025 m and 0.015 m), six versions of prototype turbine Z-blade turbine were produced. All the turbines have been tested at 100 kPa static water pressures and below. According to a variety of experimental data for all types of turbines, the turbine diameter and nozzle exit area have a substantial impact on turbine performance, especially at high water heads. Despite differences in turbine length and nozzle exit area, more than 90 % of the pattern curves for rotational speed, water flow rate, and mechanical power were identical. Overall, the Z-blade turbine Type B outperforms, resulting in higher turbine efficiency at low head and low flow water condition.

A microgrid for the secluded Paana Theertham Kani settlement in India

Recognizing the importance of electricity as a driver of rapid economic growth and poverty alleviation, India aims to provide access to all households by 2030. Despite the best efforts of state and federal governments to meet consumers’ electrical needs, budget constraints, inefficient operations and massive loan burdens have hampered their efforts. Aside from these concerns, rural India, which accounts for 65% of the population, is plagued by a slew of issues, including low electricity demand, a low load factor and the expectation of cheap electricity. These concerns bind the authorities’ hands, preventing them from moving forward. As a result, this project aims to model an autonomous microgrid system that integrates three potential renewable-energy systems, namely wind, sun and hydrokinetic, to provide electricity for a remote society. It starts with assessing the region’s electricity needs with its inhabitants. The HOMER Pro platform creates a cost-effective microgrid based on the demand estimate. The components of the microgrid include 6.4-kW small wind turbine (SWT) groups, 4.4-kW solar photovoltaic (PV) panels, a 5-kW hydrokinetic water turbine, battery storage and a converter. The project is unique in that it considers site-specific initial capital costs, replacement costs, and operation and maintenance costs of the renewable-energy systems, and it does not include any environmentally hazardous energy system. The successful optimization results in terms of levelized energy costs are $0.0538, $0.0614 and $0.0427/kWh for wind, solar and hydrokinetic components, respectively, without any environmental issues.

RANCANG BANGUN PROTOTYPE HYDRO TURBINE JENIS CROSS-FLOW UNTUK PERKOTAAN

The problem of fossil fuel crisis, both petroleum and coal, and the phenomenon of climatechange due to global warming, trigger the use of renewable energy that can overcome these problems.Cross-flow water turbine is one of the machine that can be used to produce small scale electric energy insmall scope. This turbine can be used in urban areas to assist industrial activities and their usefulness indaily life. The use of the right materials and strong construction can produce a good shape so that thiswater turbine is not only make efficient energy but also efficient and ergonomic in its use. This study isconducted theoretically to a cross-flow turbine which assumed to operate at 10m water height with 1.4L/s, outer diameter 150mm and 75mm thickness. The turbine consist of 15 blades with angle of attack ofthe blades is 30o. The results show that the turbine generate 119 Watt

Investigating barotrauma in juvenile salmon passing through a very low head turbine using response surface methodology

Although hydropower is a clean source of energy, in some cases, it can jeopardize the life of some species of riverine fish. Very Low Head (VLH) water turbine is an innovative design that aims at reducing the adverse effects of such hydroelectric facilities. In this research, two methodologies are integrated to investigate barotrauma in juvenile salmons passing through this particular turbine. First, to quantify barotrauma, we implement a method known as BioPA (Biological Performance Assessment) by combining the results of some laboratory experiments on juvenile Chinook salmon moving through a simulated turbine passage with the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation of the flow field in this environment. In the second part, we added surrogate-based modeling as a tool, which enabled us to study the effects of two geometrical parameters on the environmental performance of the VLH turbine with low computational costs. The results indicate a significant dependency between the installation angle of the VLH turbine and the severity of the barotrauma of this particular fish. In addition, further investigations suggest that the region near the middle of blades is the safest for fish in the case of decompression.

Numerical study of the vortex breakdown and vortex reconnection in the flow path of high-pressure water turbine

The paper presents a study of the instability of the precessing vortex core in the model of the draft tube of a hydraulic turbine. The study was carried out using numerical modeling using various approaches: URANS, RSM, LES. The best agreement with the experimental data was shown by the RSM and LES methods with the modelling of the runner rotation by the sliding mesh method. In the regime under consideration, the precessing vortex rope is subject to instability, which leads to reconnection of its turns and the formation of an isolated vortex ring. Reconnection of the vortex core leads to aperiodic and intense pressure fluctuations recorded on the diffuser wall.