Author(s): Shu Kai Ng; Akihiko Nakayama

Linked Author(s): Shu Kai Ng, Akihiko Nakayama

Keywords: Small hydropower; Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH); Fluid-Structure Interaction (FSI); Gravitational vortex turbine

Abstract: Small hydropower systems are increasingly studied by many researches today for their viability to provide sustainable and clean energy. They have big potential due to their smaller size and flexibility to be installed in various geographical and flow conditions. Currently, most studies focus on modelling the flow before entering the small hydropower system, during operation and after leaving the system but few have studied the flow with the turbines modelled along with the flow. Conventional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods cannot deal with flows that have a violent free surface motion and complex geometric boundaries or obstructions where the violent free surface flow interacts with moving blades of a water turbine. In the present work, a novel CFD method utilising Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) methods is applied to simulate flows in a small or micro hydropower system to investigate the flow characteristics and to improve its performance. The modelling configuration for this investigation is done based on gravitational vortex turbine small hydropower systems where the flow is directed to a circular basin with a vertical-axis turbine, harnessing the rotational energy of the vortex formed to drive the turbine. Two configurations are tested with varying flow conditions to compare the performance of the gravitational vortex turbine with one configuration having a wider but shallower basin and vice versa. The method can further be refined to identify optimum configuration and installation method in small streams of Malaysia.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3850/IAHR-39WC2521711920221392

Year: 2022