Ocean Engineering 283 (2023) 115099

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Ocean Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/oceaneng

Optimal utilization of hydrokinetic energy resources through performance

improvement of the darrieus turbine using concave and flat blocking plates
Vimal Patel a, *, Vikram Rathod a, Chirag Patel a
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, S.V. National Institute of Technology, Surat, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Handling Editor: Prof. A.I. Incecik Energy extraction from renewable sources like hydrokinetic energy from the flowing water of rivers and canals is
one of the affordable and clean energy generation technique. The current work is carried out towards perfor­
Keywords: mance enhancement of the Darrieus hydrokinetic turbine for open water channel utilization application. The
Energy conservation investigation has been done using the flat and concave shape of blocking plate. Both blocking plates have been
Hydrokinetic turbine
analyzed for different sizes as well as location at the upstream side of the turbine. The obtained results are re­
Blocking plate
ported after considering appropriate velocity correction. The blocking plates with projected width of 76 mm, 89
Energy efficiency
Renewable energy mm, 101 mm, 127 mm, 152 mm, and 203 mm are selected for the investigation. It is observed that 101 mm
(Width Ratio, WR=0.36) with concave blocking plate provides maximum Cp of 0.245 at 0.99 TSR. Also, the
optimum region is found between 0.143 and 0.286 Distance Ratio (DR) from the top corner of the acrylic plate.
The concave blocking plate enhance the performance more compared to flat blocking plate. The conclusion is
made that, the performance with flat blocking plate with optimized width and location improve the power
coefficient by 10.92% and that of concave blocking plate by 18.45%.

1. Introduction achieved using 3-blades having NACA0021 profile. The maximum Cp of

0.457 is achived using solidity of 1.2 (Asadbeigi et al., 2023). The
Darrieus hydrokinetic turbine has the capability to produce more similar turbine is taken for the further investigation by M. Mehrpooya
amount of power than another hydrokinetic turbine with the same et al. They investigated the performance of turbine based on wind ve­
projected area. These types of turbines are more useful in such areas locity, and chord length. They concluded that the optimum Cp is ach­
where the requirement for electricity is generally low. In comparison ieved for 12 m/s velocity with 0.2m chord length at 2.5 TSR (Mehrpooya
with another hydrokinetic turbine, the Darrieus turbine has a better et al., 2023). The numerical investigation has been conducted by Y.
coefficient of performance. Also, the arrangement of the Darrieus hy­ Mutlu and M. Cakan for the Darrieus, Gorlov, and Lucid turbines.
drokinetic turbine in the open canal is a little bit easy. The main ad­ Comparison indicated that Lucid turbine is having the highest power
vantages of this type of turbine are that the design and manufacturing output of an average of 6.9 W compared to other investigated turbines.
are simple and less expensive (Patel Vimal, Eldho T. I, 2019). The Gorlov-10 NACA0018 Produces the least power at 4.7 W (Mutlu and
The power coefficient of the Darrieus turbine is higher compared to Çakan, 2018). Various aerodynamics models like double-multiple
the Savonius turbine. However, the starting characteristic of the Savo­ stream tube, free vortex, and cascade have been analyzed by Islam
nius turbine is better than the Darrieus turbine (On et al., 2018). The et al. for the straight-blade Darrieus turbine. Out of these models, the
airfoil shape of the Darrieus blade has been examined using numerical as Cascade model performs better to get optimum results (Islam et al.,
well as experimental methods by Kumar and Shrivastava. The obser­ 2008). The work has been also carried out for the hybrid type of turbine
vation has been made that at 2.12 TSR, the power coefficient increases and validated with the numerical results by Saini and Saini. They
up to 0.0439 and produces 0.49-W power. (Kumar and Srivastava, observed that the performance of a hybrid turbine is better compared to
2016). The numerical method is used to investigate Darrieus VAWT by the conventional turbine. The highest Cp achieved of 0.08 at 0.81 TSR
M. Asadbeigi et al. They investigated on various blade numbers, solidity (Saini and Saini, 2020). The Darrieus turbine is investigated by Patel
and profiles of the blades. They found that optimum results can be et al. for the different blades and the solidity to enhance the

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: vimal.iitbombay@gmail.com (V. Patel).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oceaneng.2023.115099
Received 12 January 2023; Received in revised form 26 April 2023; Accepted 11 June 2023
Available online 22 June 2023
0029-8018/© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
V. Patel et al. Ocean Engineering 283 (2023) 115099

Table 1
Study based on the external devices.
Author Investigated parameter Concept Conclusion

Maldar et al. Effect of deflector, flow velocity and blade shape The 31% improvement is observed with deflector and 51% efficiency
(2022) on drag-based HKT improved having 1 m/s velocity compared to 0.5 m/s

Effect of deflector with various angles on The optimum Cp of 0.183 is achieved using 75◦ & 90◦ for advancing &
Salleh et al.
Savonius turbine returning deflector angle respectively
(2021)

Effect of deflector plate on flow characteristic and The optimum Cp achieved for 60 deflector angle is 0.463. The
Zhang et al.
performance of drag type turbine improvement in 22.8% is observed for increment in velocity from
(2021) 0.63 m/s to 0.73 m/s.

Performance enhancement using deflector for Solo Darrieus turbine perform better than combine rotors with
Sahim et al.
Darrieus-Savonius rotor for various Aspect ratio deflector. The improvement from 0.149 to 0.211 in Cp is achieved for
(2014) solo Darrieus

(Kaprawi Performance improvement using single deflector The optimum deflector angle is measure as 30. Using two stage
et al., for two stage Savonius rotor outside of Darrieus Savonius rotor, the improvement of 18% & 16% is observed for power
2015) rotor for various angles coefficient and torque coefficient respectively

Effect of “C” deflector on the Savonius turbine for The power output is enhanced by 23.78% for the optimized
Patel and
different X and Y coordinates coordinates of (X,Y)=(116.2 mm,250 mm)
Patel
(2022)

Effect of an angle between deflector plate and it’s The performance (Cp) is enhanced from 0.135 of conventional turbine
Patel and
orientation for dual rotor to 0.16 with the optimized DR-DDP design and up to 0.2 for DR-CDP
Patel design
(2021)

performance. The maximum Cp of 0.16 is measured for NACA0018 for ratio of 3.5%. The S1210 unsymmetrical airfoil has been tested by Singh
0.382 solidity (Patel et al., 2017). The effect of bearing on the perfor­ et al. for different azimuth angles using an experimental method for the
mance of the H-Darrieus turbine is investigated by Kelvin et al. They H-Darrieus turbine (Singh et al., 2015). The maximum Cp of 0.32 has
found that the bearing has a tremendous effect on the angular rotation of been achieved for solidity 1.0 for 5.7 m/s fluid velocity. The
the turbine and improves the results (Pinheiro et al., 2021). study-related numbers of the blade, size, and other parameters were
The effect of the blockage has been studied by Jeong et al. and the studied using QBlade software by Muratoglu et al. and results are
correction factor is introduced to include its effect (Jeong et al., 2018). It generated (Muratoglu and Demir, 2020). They suggest that increasing
is found that the blockage ratio has a good amount of impact on the the chord length delivers maximum power at low Tip speed ratio ranges.
performance of the turbine. The CP for blockage ratios of 13.4% and The investigation is carried out for low-head ducted Darrieus turbine by
24.7% were respectively 1.3 and 2 times higher than that for a blockage A. Furukawa et al. (2010). The conclusion says that there is little

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V. Patel et al. Ocean Engineering 283 (2023) 115099

work is explained in Fig. 1.

2. Conceptual discussion

The Darrieus turbine works on the generation of lift and drag force
when hydrofoils submerge in water flow. The resultant tangential
components (Ti) of lift force (Lf) and drag forces (Df) on the blade drive
the turbine rotor. The tangential velocity (u) and relative velocity (w) is
also drawn to understand the flow. As shown in Fig. 2(a), the water
strike to the retarding blade develops negative torque on the turbine
shaft. To decrease the negative torque generated by the retarding blade
the flow blocking plate can be introduced as shown in Fig. 2. The po­
sition of the blocking plate should be such that it should overcome the
negative torque optimally. The too small size of blocking plate may not
block the sufficient amount of incoming flow towards retarding blade
side. On other hand excessively bigger size of blocking plate may bypass
incoming water flow over and above from advancing blade also. Hence,
there is a need of investigation to find the best size and location of
blocking plate at upstream side of blades. Also, the lift and drag force
Fig. 1. Application of the Darrieus turbine. generation by blades depends predominantly angle of attack and Rey­
nolds number (indirectly flow velocity). The shape of blocking plate may
influence of casing clearance on efficiency. The numerical investigation affect the flow direction and subsequently the angle of attack. Hence, in
on duct augmented system for straight blade Darrieus turbine is done by the present investigation; it is decided to investigate different size and
I. Tunio et al. (2020). The results show an increase in the power pro­ locations of the concave blocking plates to get best performance from
duction of 112% as compared to the non-ducted turbine. The induced the turbine.
stress of 178.5 MPa is noted for the ducted turbine. An Asymmetric The present work is inspired by the past research done for the V
airfoil NACA 63–415 for an H-Darrieus turbine is studied for various shape deflector plate on the upstream side of the dual-rotor Savonius
pitch angles by Hussain et al. (Mazarbhuiya et al., 2020). The investi­ turbine (Patel and Patel, 2021). The current experimental idea is also
gation results say that the positive +50 gives the optimum power co­ derived from the work on the ‘C’ shape deflector used by R. Patel et al.
efficient of 0.271 for a tip speed ratio of 2.4. (Patel and Patel, 2022). Two different shape-blocking plates are intro­
Few researches are done based on some external devices used to duced in the current experimental work. Furthermore, analysis has been
increase the performance of the hydrokinetic turbines. The brief de­ carried out to find the optimum size and location of the blocking plates.
scriptions are shown in Table 1. The goal of the present work is to find the optimum shape, size, and
After analyzing the previous research on the Darrieus turbines, it is location of the blocking plate to obtain the best performance from the
observed that many efforts are carried out to enhance the performance turbine unit.
using changes in the blade’s shape, and sizes, using diversion of flow,
etc. However, the use of a blocking plate for performance enhancement 3. Data reduction
is not explored much, especially for the Darrieus turbine. The current
research aims to enhance the performance by obstructing the flowing The brief discussion about the term used in the article is noted as
fluid using flat and concave blocking plates and to obtain the optimum follows.
sizes and its locations for the best performance. In the present investi­ Solidity (σ) is the ratio of the rotor circumference covered by the
gation, a 3-blade Darrieus turbine having NACA 0012 hydrofoil has been turbine blade to the circumferential length of the turbine (Chen et al.,
used for experimental investigation. The blocking plates are located on 2019). It can be calculated using Eq. (1).
the upstream side of the turbine. nc
A country like India is popular in the field of agriculture. To fulfill the σ= (1)
πD
requirement for water, canals are already available for water supply
(Patel and Patel, 2023). The Darrieus hydrokinetic turbines can be used Where, n = no of blades, c = chord length, D = Darrieus turbine
in these canals for remote location power generation which may be diameter.
helpful to run small equipment. The general application of the present Tip Speed Ratio (TSR) is the ratio of the tangential velocity of the tip
of the turbine to the speed of the water flow. It can be calculated using

Fig. 2. Concept of blocking plate.

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V. Patel et al. Ocean Engineering 283 (2023) 115099

Eq. (2).
rω
TSR = (2)
V

Where, r = Radius of Darrieus rotor, ω = Angular velocity, V= Water

free stream velocity.
The coefficient of performance (Cp) indicates the ratio of generated
mechanical power at the turbine shaft to the hydrokinetic power supply
to the turbine rotor (Cacciali et al., 2021). It can be calculated using Eq.
(3). It indicates the non-dimensional term of power developed by the
turbine.
Tω
Cp = 1 (3)
2
ρ(Bi H)V 3

Where Bi indicates the breadth of the flow region covered by the turbine
structure. “BiH” indicates the cross-sectional flow area of the fluid
domain, from which the kinetic energy of water is transferred to the
turbine region.
The presence of a turbine in the narrow water canal changes the flow
characteristic around the turbine. Due to restricted flow passage, the
flow velocity enhances near the turbine region and subsequently, tur­
bine indicates larger power output compared to its actual performance.
Fig. 3. Schematic diagram of Darrieus rotor arrangement in a canal. To predict the correct performance of the turbine appropriate velocity
correction method must be used [15–16]. The corrected velocity for the
calculation of Cp and Ct can be predicted from Eq. (4).
Table 2
Parameters investigated in the present study. U2
Vc2 = (4)
1 − m(B.R)
Width of blocking Width Blocking plate Distance Ratio (X/D)
plate (w) ratio
Where;
(mm) (w/D) X= X = 40 X = 80 X = 120
0 (mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) m = 8.14(B.R)2 − 7.309(B.R) + 3.23
76 0.271 0.000 0.143 0.286 0.429
89 0.317 0.000 0.143 0.286 0.429
The term m is the non-dimensional term and ratio of the wake region
101 0.36 0.000 0.143 0.286 0.429 normal to the fluid directly to the maximum frontal area of the channel
127 0.453 0.000 0.143 0.286 0.429 (Ross and Altman, 2011). B.R. is the blockage ratio of the Darrieus
152 0.542 0.000 0.143 0.286 0.429 turbine in the open channel.
203 0.725 0.000 0.143 0.286 0.429

4. Investigated parameters

The broad objective of the present work is to enhance the perfor­

mance of the Darrieus turbine by blocking the specific region of the flow
field. The specific objective of the work is to obtain the optimum loca­
tion and size of the blocking region which provide the maximum coef­
ficient of power and the region by which, blocking the turbine provides
better performance compared to a bare conventional turbine. It is also
decided to find the best shape of the blocking plate from a flat and
concave shape.
To attain the aim, the experiments have been carried out for the flat
and concave shape blocking plate separately. Apart from the shapes, the
sizes and the locations of the blocking plates are also evaluated. As
shown in Fig. 3, six different widths (w) are investigated. i. e; 76 mm, 89
Fig. 4. Laboratory scale canal. mm, 101 mm, 127 mm, 152 mm, and 203 mm are investigated. Also, the
different widths of flat and concave blocking plates have been examined
for various locations (X), i.e. 0 mm, 40 mm, 80 mm, and 120 mm. For
Table 3 non-dimensionalization, the non-dimensional term Width Ratio (WR) is
Detail parameters related to the canal. introduced which indicates, the ratio of the width of the blocking plate
Sr. No Details Specifications (w) to the diameter of the rotor (D). Similarly, for non-
1 Straight length of Test section 4000 mm
dimensionalization identification of distance. The non-dimensional
2 Width 1000 mm term Distance Ratio (DR) is introduced; which indicates the ratio dis­
3 Canal Structural depth 1000 mm tance location (X) of the blocking plate to the diameter (D) of the rotor.
4 Water Depth 750 mm The investigated parameters of the present study are marked in Table 2.
5 Water Velocity (Free stream) 0.314 m/s
Fig. 3 shows the arrangement of the flat blocking plate on the up­
stream side. Similar arrangements were made while performing the
experiments for the concave blocking plate.

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V. Patel et al. Ocean Engineering 283 (2023) 115099

Fig. 5. (a) Schematic diagram of Darrieus rotor (b) Experiment setup of Darrieus rotor.

5. Details of experiments
Table 4
Detail specification of Darrieus turbine rotor.
5.1. Test facility
Sr. No Details Specifications

1 No of Hydrofoil 3 The present experiments have been carried out in the open channel
2 Hydrofoil profile NACA 0012 available at Advance Fluid Mechanics & Fluid Power Laboratory at
3 Rotor Diameter (D) 280 mm SVNIT, Surat. Fig. 4 indicates the available laboratory canal used for the
4 Rotor Height (H) 220 mm
5 Chord length 140 mm
present investigation. The other details of the canal are shown in
6 Solidity 0.477 Table 3. The flow straighteners are used upstream of the test section, to
ensure streamline inflow to the turbine rotor.

5.2. Experiment setup

In the present investigation, a 3-bladed Darrieus Hydrokinetic tur­

bine with NACA 0012 symmetric hydrofoils is used. All hydrofoils are
fixed in between the top and bottom end plates. The end plates are also
used to avoid water by passing from the top and bottom portions of the
turbine blades. So, a maximum quantity of water flow can pass from the
turbine rotor section.
The conceptual diagram of the experimental setup of the turbine unit
is shown in Fig. 5(a) and the actual photograph is in Fig. 5(b). The
complete rotor unit is supported in between the top and bottom end
support plates. The rotor is supported with its shaft in the bearing
housing of the top and bottom support plates. For precise alignment, the
double bearing is used at the top bearing housing. The angular contact
bearing is used at the bottom support plate to allow minor mis­
alignments. The other details of the rotor are shown in Table 4.
The experiments have been performed by keeping the various
blocking plates at the upstream side of the Darrieus turbine. The
arrangement of the blocking plate near the turbine is shown in Fig. 5(a).
The propeller type current meter is used to measure the water velocity.
The least count for the instrument is 0.01 m/s. The propeller type end is
submerged inside the water flow and panel at other end is used to note
Fig. 6. Validation of experimental results without the use of blocking plate. down the result. The non-contact type tachometer is used to measure the
angular velocity of the shaft. The least count for non-contact tachometer
is 1 rpm. The rope brake dynamometer is used to find the torque develop

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V. Patel et al. Ocean Engineering 283 (2023) 115099

Fig. 7. Turbine performance using flat blocking plate at different TSR.

by the turbine. As shown in Fig. 5, one end of rope is attached with as tight side tension, slack side tension, and radius of the shaft where a
known weights and the other end is connected with weight scale. The rope is a wound. The power developed by the turbine is calculated using
least count for the weight scale is 25 g. measured torque and angular velocity of the turbine shaft. The experi­
ments are repeated by gradually increasing the load on the turbine shaft;
till the rotor stops rotating. The obtained results are plotted as a varia­
5.3. Experiment procedure tion of the coefficient of power with different Tip Speed Ratio (TSR). The
velocity measured by the velocity current meter is 0.315 m/s. The cor­
Initially, for validation purposes, the experiments are carried out rected velocity is 0.354 m/s, which is estimated using maskel’s correc­
with a bare turbine rotor, without the use of a blocking plate. The tur­ tion method. The calculation of Cp and TSR is carried out using corrected
bine unit is placed at the center of the canal. Initially, the angular speed velocity. For validation, the obtained results are compared with results
of the turbine is measured without load conditions. The experiments are published by Lee et al. (Lee and Lim, 2015) as shown in Fig. 6. The
continued after partially loading the turbine shaft by using a load on validation is also done with the numerical simulation done by the M.
weight pan. The tight side tension on the rope is estimated by the load Fleisinger et al. (Fleisinger et al., 2014). The validated published liter­
weight pan and the slack side tension is by taking a reading from the atures are for different value of solidity and blade profile. However, the
spring balance fixed at another side of the rope. The torque is calculated

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V. Patel et al. Ocean Engineering 283 (2023) 115099

Fig. 10. Optimum region of flat blocking plate (All dimensions are in mm).

by keeping it at different locations as mentioned in Table 1. After esti­

mation of the performance with flat blocking plate; the same experi­
ments are repeated with different sizes of concave blocking plates by
keeping them at different locations.

6. Result and discussion

Fig. 8. Optimization of distance ratio.

The performance of the turbine was measured experimentally using
six different widths of a flat blocking plate; i. e 76 mm; 89 mm; 101 mm;
127 mm; 152 mm; 203 mm. Firstly, the 76 mm (WR = 0.271) width
blocking plate is selected and the performance of the turbine is reported
by keeping it at different locations on the upstream side of the turbine.
The selected distances are 0 mm (DR = 0), 40 mm (DR = 0.143), 80 mm
(DR = 0.286), and 120 mm (DR = 0.429). The obtained results are re­
ported in form of variations of Cp and Ct at different TSR, at various
distance ratio separately for all considered width ratio of the flat
blocking plate.

6.1. Investigation for flat blocking plate

The results obtained by using a flat blocking plate are analyzed for
the performance evaluation on Darrieus hydrokinetic turbine. The re­
sults are reported as the obtained variation of the coefficient of power at
different tip speed ratio (i.e. different load conditions). The results also
include the analysis of the various blocking plate locations. The loca­
tions of the blocking plate have been converted into non-dimensional
terms as a Distance Ratio (DR). The results are reported separately for
different widths of the blocking plates. The effect of the width of the
blocking plates is discussed in term of width ratio. The obtained results
are shown in Fig. 7.
Fig. 7(a) indicates the variation of coefficient of power (Cp) at
different TSR; with the use of a flat blocking plate of WR = 0.271(76
mm). For better comparison, the results obtained without the use of
Fig. 9. Optimum value of WR.
blocking plates are also marked on the same charts. The maximum Cp
measured without a blocking plate is 0.208 at 1.006 TSR. However, with
comparison of the obtained results with using corrected velocity in­
the use of a blocking plate of WR = 0.271(75 mm); the maximum Cp od
dicates almost similar curve pattern of Cp. Hence, all other results are
0.22 is obtained at TSR 1.008 which is 6.61% higher than the bare
reported using corrected velocity.
turbine. It was observed that a DR of 0.28 provides better results than
The uncertainty associated with the experimentally obtained coef­
the bare turbine. It is also observed that the maximum coefficient of
ficient of power is estimated to be 1.3%. The complete calculation step
power with all distance ratio is falling in between TSR of 0.9–1.1 with
for the estimation of uncertainty is described in Appendix-I.
use of blocking platewith WR = 0.271(76 mm). At the initial stage of the
The corrected velocity has been used for all experiments. The
experiment, the angular velocity increase predominantly in comparison
maximum power coefficient of 0.295 has been achieved at 1.131 TSR
with the drop in the shaft torque. Hence, the Cp of the Darrieus turbine
with free stream velocity. By applying the correction velocity factor, the
increase till it reaches to optimum point for a specific tip speed ratio.
maximum power coefficient measured a 0.207 at 1.006 TSR for the bare
However, by further decreasing the load, Cp decreases due to the fact
turbine.
that a drop in torque predominantly reduces the power output (i.e.
With the validated experimental procedure and calculation, first, the
torque on the shaft) compare to enhancement in power output by in­
experiments are repeated using a flat blocking plate. Initially, the flat
crease in angular velocity.
plate with fixed width is taken and the above experiments are repeated,
The results for other blocking plates width WR = 0.317(89 mm), WR

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V. Patel et al. Ocean Engineering 283 (2023) 115099

Fig. 11. Turbine performance using concave blocking plate at different TSR.

= 0.360(101 mm), WR = 0.453(127 mm), WR = 0.542(152 mm), and coefficient of power.

WR = 0.725(203 mm) has been plotted in Fig. 7. Overall, the maximum On other hand, with an excessive distance ratio, the blocking plate
coefficient of power produced for the remaining blocking plate for WR of tends to block the flow even towards advancing blades, which also de­
0.317, 0.360, 0.453, 0.542, 0.725 are 0.222, 0.229, 0.210, 0.192 and teriorates the performance of the turbine. Overall, the maximum coef­
0.099 at TSR of 0.98, 1.05, 1.03, 1.06 and 1.15 respectively. ficient of power 0.229 is obtained by use of a blocking plate with a Width
To get an overall idea about the optimum distance ratio; the Ratio; WR = 0.36(101 mm) at a Distance Ratio DR = 0.14(40 mm).
maximum coefficient of power (Cpmax) obtained with a different dis­ To get the effect of Width Ratio (WR) on the performance of the
tance ratio is marked in Fig. 8; using a different width of blocking plates. turbine, the variation of maximum coefficient of power at different
From the relative comparison, it is observed that with smaller width of width ratio of the blocking plate is marked in Fig. 9. The results indicate
blocking plates, the maximum value of Cp is obtained at a larger value of that, overall WR = 0.36 provides a maximum coefficient of power of
distance ratio. This is due to the fact that; with smaller values of distance 0.229 among all investigated width ratio.
ratio; the blocking plates unable to block the flow to the retarding blades From Fig. 9, it can be seen that the best performance can be achieved
and the increased Bi of the inlet flow energy does not efficiently convert between 0.25 and 0.46 width Ratio. The results of the turbine drop using
to mechanical power generation; which ultimately results in a fall of the bigger size of blocking the plate. The best coefficient achieved using

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V. Patel et al. Ocean Engineering 283 (2023) 115099

Fig. 14. Optimized region for concave blocking plate (All dimensions are
in mm).

Fig. 12. Optimization of distance ratio.

Fig. 15. Result comparison for flat and concave blocking plates.

6.2. Investigation for concave blocking plate

Further investigation is done on concave shape blocking plate and

the same experimental procedure is repeated. The obtained experi­
mental results for different distance ratio are shown in Fig. 11. The
output results are shown in terms of non-dimensional terms such as
Fig. 13. Optimum value of WR. coefficient of power (Cp).
Fig. 11(a) indicates the change in the coefficient of power (Cp) at
various TSR (i.e various loads) for the concave blocking plate of WR =
a flat blocking plate is 0.229 for 0.36 WR using corrected velocity.
0.271 (76 mm). For comparison purposes, the results achieved with a
For better representation, the optimum locations and size of the flat
bare turbine (i.e without a blocking plate) are also plotted in the same
blocking plate have been mentioned in Fig. 10 in the non-dimensional
charts. Fig. 11(a) indicates that the maximum Cp of 0.2211 is obtained
parameters. The shaded region with green color indicates the opti­
for 1.07 TSR for WR = 0.271 (76 mm). This obtained result is 6.8%
mum location and size of the flat blocking plate; which provides the best
greater than the bare turbine’s maximum Cp result. It is also noted that
results for the flat blocking plate. The optimum distance of the green
the DR = 0.14 provides an optimum Cp value. It is observed that the
shaded area is 0.60D (170 mm) from the center and the width is 0.36D
maximum power coefficient is obtained for TSR in between 0.95 and 1.1
(101 mm). The shaded region of orange color indicates the region; by
with concave shape blocking plate for all investigated DR for WR =
blocking which turbine provides better results compared to a bare tur­
0.271 (76 mm). The performance of the Darrieus rotor drops below the
bine rotor. i.e. turbine without any blocking plate. The location of the
TSR value of 0.95. It is due to the fact that the angular velocity of the
shaded orange color is 0.60D (170 mm) from the center and the width is
shaft decreases predominantly compare to the raise in the torque
0.50D (140 mm).
generated by the turbine. Subsequently, the Cp drops after the 1.1 TSR
due to the lower measured value of torque in comparison with the

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V. Patel et al. Ocean Engineering 283 (2023) 115099

greater value of angular velocity. and results are presented in form of variations of coefficient of power
The maximum Cp obtained for other blocking plate widths of WR = (Cp) at different Tip Speed Ratio (TSR).
0.317(89 mm), WR = 0.360(101 mm), WR = 0.453(127 mm), WR = For better comparison; the maximum coefficient of power obtained
0.542(152 mm) and WR = 0.725(203 mm) concave blocking plate is with different Width Ratio (WR) of blocking plates are shown simulta­
0.222, 0.245, 0.211, 0.167 and 0.080 at 0.914, 0.999, 1.104, 0.894 and neously for both flat and concave blocking plates in Fig. 15. The final
1.05 TSR respectively. conclusions derived from the present work are shown below.
The overall performance of the turbine with a concave blocking plate
for different distance ratio is shown in Fig. 12. The results are shown in ➢ The concave blocking plate with WR = 0.36 (101 mm); when placed
terms of the maximum power coefficient obtained for different distance at Distance Ratio DR = 0.286 (80 mm) provides the best coefficient
ratio (DR). For better comparison, the blocking plate distance (X) is also of power 0.245 at 0.999 TSR. It is 18.45% higher than a bare turbine;
marked. It is observed that, for larger size blocking plate, the results of without the use of a blocking plate.
the turbine drops for the high value of DR. For smaller size blocking ➢ The blocking plate with excessive WR; i.e. more than 0.453 deteri­
plate, the results start increasing and it drops after a particular DR. This orate the performance of the turbine; even compared to a bare
is due to the fact that, when smaller size blocking plate is kept with turbine.
smaller DR, it diverts the flow to the retarding blade and oppose it. This ➢ The maximum coefficient of power 0.229 obtained with a flat
causes a decrement in the angular speed and it lowers the power gen­ blocking plate with a width ratio 0.36 when it placed at a distance
eration by the Darrieus turbine. It is also seen that after 0.36 DR, the ratio; DR = 0.143(40 mm). It is 10.92% higher than that of the bare
performance drops for every blocking plate. This is due to the fact that turbine; i. e without use of a blocking plate.
the blocking plate block the incoming flow towards the advancing blade, ➢ The blocking plates with a width ratio between 0.271 and 0.453
which again decreases the angular speed of the rotor shaft, and indi­ placed at an optimized distance provides better performance
rectly, the power developed by the turbine decrease. Overall, for all compared to bare turbine.
investigated blocking plates, the WR = 0.360 (101 mm) provides the
optimum result for DR = 0.286 (80 mm), which is 0.245. The detailed experimental results are shown in Appendix-II and
The effect of width ratio (WR) on the performance of the Darrieus Appendix-III.
turbine is also investigated. The variation of maximum coefficient of
power for different width ratio (DR) is studied experimentally and re­ CRediT authorship contribution statement
sults are shown in Fig. 13. The results show that, for larger width ratio,
the performance of the turbine decreases. This is due to the fact that the Vimal Patel: substantial contribution to conception and design,
larger size blocking plate covers the majority portion of the water substantial contribution to analysis and interpretation of data, critically
striking the rotor and decrease the rotor angular speed. This cause drops revising the article for important intellectual, final approval of the
in performance. It is noted that the maximum coefficient of power is version to be published. Vikram Rathod: substantial contribution to
obtained for WR = 0.360 (101 mm), which is 0.245. acquisition of data, drafting the article a . Chirag Patel: substantial
The optimum location and the size of the concave blocking plate are contribution to conception and design, substantial contribution to
converted in the non-dimensional parameters for better representation acquisition of data, substantial contribution to analysis and interpreta­
and shown in Fig. 14. The region shown with green color indicates tion of data, drafting the article.
where the maximum performance of the turbine is obtained when the
blocking plate is kept in that region. The optimum distance of the green- Declaration of competing interest
shaded region is 0.46D (130 mm) from the center and the width of the
region is 0.36D (101 mm). The region shown with orange color indicates The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
a region, where the Darrieus turbine gives better performance than the interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
bare turbine (i.e without a blocking plate) when the blocking plate is the work reported in this paper.
kept in a particular region. The orange color shaded portion starts from
0.46D (130 mm) distance from the center. The width of the orange re­ Data availability
gion is 0.50D (140 mm).
Data will be made available on request.
7. Conclusion
Acknowledgments
The experimental analysis is carried out on the Darrieus Hydroki­
netic turbine using upstream side blocking plates. Two types of blocking Authors gratefully acknowledge Science and Engineering Research
plates are used. (1) Flat blocking plate (2) Concave blocking the plate. Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology, Delhi, India for
Each shape of the blocking plate is investigated at different distances funding through core research grant for this study. The sanction order
and width. The experiments are carried out at different load conditions number CRG/2020/005420.

Nomenclature

Symbols
Cp Coefficient of power
D Rotor diameter (mm)
H Rotor height (mm)
V Free stream velocity (m/s)
Vc Corrected velocity
w Width of blocking plate (mm)
X Blocking plate distance (mm)

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V. Patel et al. Ocean Engineering 283 (2023) 115099

Short forms
DR Distance Ratio
WR Width Ratio
TSR Tip Speed Ratio

Appendix-I

Uncertainty analysis has been done for the checking the errors associated with the measurements.

I. Uncertainty analysis for Coefficient of Power (Cp)

The coefficient of power can be calculated using,

Tω
Cp = 1
2
ρ (Bi H)V
3

The least count associated with the torque measurement was observed as 0.0001 Nm. The least count associated to measure the angular velocity is
0.1046 rad/s. The least for vernier scale has been considered as 0.01. The uncertainty with Cp can be calculated as,
( ) √̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
( )2 ( )2 ( )2 ( )2
d Cp dt dH dD dV
= + + +
Cp T T D V

Appendix-II

Results for Flat blocking plate

Height of Diameter of Width of Width ratio Deflector Distance Ratio Maximum Coefficient of Power Maximum Coefficient of Power
rotor (H) rotor (D) deflector (w) (w/D) distance (X) (X/D) (Freestream velocity) (Corrected velocity)

(mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (Cpmax) (Cpmax)

220 280 76 0.271 0 0.000 0.274 0.192

40 0.143 0.300 0.210
80 0.286 0.315 0.220
120 0.429 0.235 0.165
89 0.317 0 0.000 0.240 0.168
40 0.143 0.281 0.197
80 0.286 0.317 0.222
120 0.429 0.306 0.214
101 0.36 0 0.000 0.256 0.179
40 0.143 0.327 0.229
80 0.286 0.298 0.209
120 0.429 0.223 0.156
127 0.453 0 0.000 0.255 0.179
40 0.143 0.300 0.210
80 0.286 0.227 0.159
120 0.429 0.170 0.119
152 0.542 0 0.000 0.274 0.192
40 0.143 0.218 0.152
80 0.286 0.084 0.058
120 0.429 0.058 0.040
203 0.725 0 0.000 0.142 0.099
40 0.143 0.069 0.048
80 0.286 0.047 0.032
120 0.429 0.035 0.024

Appendix-III

Results for Concave blocking plate

Height of Diameter of Width of Width ratio Deflector Distance Ratio Maximum Coefficient of Power Maximum Coefficient of Power
rotor (H) rotor (D) deflector (w) (w/D) distance (X) (X/D) (Freestream velocity) (Corrected velocity)

(mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (Cpmax) (Cpmax)

220 280 76 0.271 0 0.000 0.219 0.153

40 0.143 0.315 0.221
80 0.286 0.264 0.185
120 0.429 0.259 0.181
89 0.317 0 0.000 0.268 0.187
(continued on next page)

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V. Patel et al. Ocean Engineering 283 (2023) 115099

(continued )
Height of Diameter of Width of Width ratio Deflector Distance Ratio Maximum Coefficient of Power Maximum Coefficient of Power
rotor (H) rotor (D) deflector (w) (w/D) distance (X) (X/D) (Freestream velocity) (Corrected velocity)

(mm) (mm) (mm) (mm) (Cpmax) (Cpmax)

40 0.143 0.290 0.203

80 0.286 0.318 0.222
120 0.429 0.280 0.196
101 0.36 0 0.000 0.229 0.160
40 0.143 0.283 0.198
80 0.286 0.349 0.245
120 0.429 0.314 0.220
127 0.453 0 0.000 0.250 0.175
40 0.143 0.302 0.211
80 0.286 0.156 0.109
120 0.429 0.124 0.087
152 0.542 0 0.000 0.239 0.167
40 0.143 0.224 0.157
80 0.286 0.176 0.123
120 0.429 0.145 0.101
203 0.725 0 0.000 0.115 0.080
40 0.143 0.081 0.057
80 0.286 0.060 0.042
120 0.429 0.058 0.040

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