DEVELOPMENT OF A MODEL WATER CURRENT TURBINE AND ITS APPLICATION IN BANGLADESH

摘要

Bangladesh is mainly a flat delta plain covered by the three major rivers viz. the Ganges, the Brahmaputrarnand the Meghna. About 230 rivers flow over the country; out of which 57 are transboundary coming formrnIndia and Myanmar. The water slopes of these rivers, except the ones in the hilly regions, are very low i.e.rnabout 200 to 700 mm per km. However the border rivers usually have their upper basin in India with a highrnchannel slope, which flattens somewhat on the entry into Bangladesh. They pass through alluvial fans havingrnrelatively high slope and then enter the flood plain before discharging into larger rivers. In the region of highrnchannel slope the rivers have a reasonable current flow rate that may be utilized for small-scale electricityrngeneration.rnThis paper has considered several sites of the rivers where the monthly mean river current data are analyzedrnthroughout the year. The study has shown that there are a few locations where the rivers flow with a meanrnvelocity of more than 0.9 m/s for quite a reasonable time in a year. In these locations river current turbinerncan be used to harness the kinetic energy from the flowing river.rnA model water current turbine with three NACA 4412 blades having a rotor radius of 210 mm, was tested inrna water flume. The model test showed that it was capable of producing 50 W/m~2 of energy at a free stream ofrn0.65 m/s.