Tubular-type hydroturbine performance for variable guide vane opening by CFD

摘要

Micro hydraulic power generation which has output of less or equal to 100kW is attracting considerable attention. This is because of its small, simple, renewable, and large amount of energy resources. By using a small hydro power generator of which main concept is based on using differential water pressures in pipe lines, energy which was initially wasted by use of a reducing valve at an end of the pipeline, is collected by a turbine in the hydro power generator. A propeller shaped hydroturbine has been used in order to make use of this renewable pressure energy. In this study, in order to acquire basic design data of tubular type hydroturbine, output power, head, and efficiency characteristics due to the guide vane opening angle are examined in detail. Moreover, in uences of pressure, tangential and axial velocity distributions on turbine performance are investigated by using a commercial CFD code.