Design and performance of very low head water turbines using a surface vorticity model algorithm
Design and performance of very low head water turbines using a surface vorticity model algorithm
Ridwan Arief Subekti1,2, Budi Prawara3, Anjar Susatyo2, Ahmad Fudholi2,4, Sastra Kusuma Wijaya1,
Arief Sudarmaji1
1
Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Indonesia, Depok, Indonesia
2
Research Centre for Electrical Power and Mechatronics, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Bandung, Indonesia
3
Research Centre for Electronics and Telecommunication, National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Bandung, Indonesia
4
Solar Energy Research Institute, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Malaysia
Corresponding Author:
Sastra Kusuma Wijaya
Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Indonesia
Depok, West Java, Indonesia
Email: skwijaya@sci.ui.ac.id
1. INTRODUCTION
The development of small and medium scale hydroelectric power plants in Indonesia is currently
growing rapidly. This situation arises because the potential is quite large and is in line with the government’s
program to develop renewable energy resources. Geographically, Indonesia is an archipelagic country. The
unequal distribution of electricity load centers as well as the low level of electricity demand in several regions
are factors that hinder the supply of electrical energy on a national scale. Facilities in disadvantaged, frontier,
and outermost areas are particularly disadvantaged. The decreasing availability of fossil energy sources and
increasing awareness to preserve the environment will encourage the increased use of alternative energy sources.
Pico and micro hydro power plants are also widely developed in developing countries [1]–[4].
The water turbine is one of the main components of a hydropower system. Thus, good turbine design is
necessary to endow the generator with high efficiency. One method to optimize the design of the water turbine
runner is to use surface vorticity model analysis which is a boundary integral method for evaluating fluid flow.
The surface vorticity model has been developed and applied as a predictive tool for various engineering problems,
such as for handling potential flows for any situation, including lifting bodies. Surface vorticity modelling offers
the advantage of being the most natural of all boundary integral techniques [5].
In this study, an analysis of the runner profile of a two-dimensional water turbine was performed because
of the advantage of computing speed relative to a more complex three-dimensional analysis. Potential flow
analysis using a surface vorticity model is applied to minimize losses in the runner profile. Several other
optimization methods related to potential flow analysis of the runner turbomachinery profile were conducted using
a viscous vortex lattice method analysis [6], multiphase large eddy simulations [7], [8], computational fluid
dynamics analysis [9]–[14] and experimental analysis [15]–[17]. In this work, design validation was implemented
to determine performance using computational fluid dynamics analysis ANSYS CFX.
Design and performance of very low head water turbines using a … (Ridwan Arief Subekti)
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𝑦𝑛+1 −𝑦𝑛
𝛽𝑛 = 𝑎𝑟𝑐 tan ( ) (2)
𝑥𝑛+1 −𝑥𝑛
1
𝑥𝑛 = (𝑋𝑛+1 + 𝑋𝑛 ) (3)
2
1
𝑦𝑛 = (𝑌𝑛+1 + 𝑌𝑛 ) (4)
2
2𝜋 2𝜋
∆𝑠𝑛 sin (𝑦𝑚−𝑦𝑛 ) cos 𝛽𝑚 −sinh (𝑥𝑚 −𝑥𝑛 ) sin 𝛽𝑚
𝑡 𝑡
𝐾(𝑠𝑚 , 𝑠𝑛 ) = { 2𝜋 2𝜋 } (5)
2𝑡 cosh (𝑥𝑚−𝑥𝑛 )−cos (𝑦𝑚 −𝑦𝑛 )
𝑡 𝑡
1 1
𝐾(𝑠𝑚 , 𝑠𝑚 ) ≈ − − (𝛽𝑚+1 − 𝛽𝑚−1 ) (6)
2 8𝜋
1
𝐾(𝑠𝑜𝑝𝑝 , 𝑠𝑚 ) = − ∑𝑀𝑛=1 𝐾(𝑠𝑛 , 𝑠𝑚 )∆𝑠𝑛 (7)
∆𝑠𝑜𝑝𝑝 𝑛≠𝑜𝑝𝑝
∑𝑀
𝑛=1 𝐾(𝑠𝑚 , 𝑠𝑛 )𝛾(𝑠𝑛 ) = 𝐾(𝑛, 1)𝛾(𝑠1 ) + ⋯ + (𝐾(𝑛, 𝑡𝑒) − 𝐾(𝑛, 𝑡𝑒 + 1))𝛾(𝑡𝑒) + ⋯ + 𝐾(𝑛, 𝑀)𝛾(𝑀) (8)
𝛾(𝑠) 2
𝐶𝑝 = 1 − { } (10)
𝑊∞
Γ
1− 𝑣 2 Γ𝑢
2𝑡
𝛽2 = 𝑎𝑟𝑐 tan {( Γ ) tan 𝛽1 −( Γ ) } (11)
1+ 𝑣 1+ 𝑣 2𝑡
2𝑡 2𝑡
𝑡
𝐶𝐿∞ = 2 ( ) (tan 𝛽1 − tan 𝛽2 ) cos 𝛽∞ (12)
𝑙
with runner profile input data coordinates (Xn,Yn), element lengths (∆𝑆𝑛 ), profile slopes (𝛽𝑛 ), pivotal points
(xn,yn), coupling coefficients K(sm, sn), right hand sides (𝑟𝑠ℎ𝑚 ), the back-diagonal correction 𝐾(𝑠𝑜𝑝𝑝 , 𝑠𝑚 ), the
Kutta-condition 𝐾(𝑠𝑚 , 𝑠𝑛 )𝛾(𝑠𝑛 ), the surface pressure coefficient (𝐶𝑝 ), and the lift coefficient (𝐶𝐿∞ ) [5].
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2
𝜕𝑣𝑟 𝜕𝑣𝑟 𝑣𝜃 𝜕𝜌 𝜕2 𝑣𝑟 1 𝜕𝑣𝑟 𝑣𝑟 𝜕2 𝑣𝑟
𝑣𝑟 + 𝑣𝑧 − + = 𝜈( + − + ) (15)
𝜕𝑟 𝜕𝑧 𝑟 𝜌𝜕𝑟 𝜕𝑟 2 𝑟 𝜕𝑟 𝑟2 𝜕𝑧 2
where 𝑣𝜃 , 𝑣𝑟 and 𝑣𝑧 are the tangential, radial, and axial velocity components, ρ is the density of water, g is
gravity and υ is the kinematic viscosity.
The main advantage of CFDs is their ability to quickly produce results at low cost, thereby making
them especially suitable for optimization [21]. However, CFDs also require rigorous quantitative validation by
physical models before they are used for design purposes because the results from CFDs can be higher than
those from real experimental conditions [22]–[24].
Numerical simulations were performed on ANSYS CFX with a three-dimensional water turbine
runner model and hexahedral mesh elements. The settings used include the reference pressure of 1 atm and
turbulence model of shear stress transport. The inlet boundary conditions include total pressure and static
pressure outlet boundary conditions. High resolution type turbulence numeric with double precision were
employed. Given the axisymmetric shape of the runner, the analysis in this work utilized the turbo mode,
namely, modelling with one propeller blade.
Design and performance of very low head water turbines using a … (Ridwan Arief Subekti)
1144 ISSN: 2088-8694
stagger angle for segment 1 to segment 4 turbine type 2 is smaller than turbine type 1 as shown in Table 2.
While in segment 5, the type 2 turbine in Figure 3(b), has a slightly flatter stagger profile than the type 1 turbine
in Figure 3(a).
(a)
(b)
Figure 3. Isometric 3D view of the blade from the (a) initial design and (b) optimization results
Furthermore, the design of runner blade types 1 and 2 were analyzed for their performance using the
commercial ANSYS CFX CFD. ANSYS CFX works on the basis of finite volume method on object elements.
The three-dimensional volume computing domain using hexahedral meshing is employed to evaluate the water
turbine runner which is designed to have five blades. This analysis utilized the turbo mode so that only one
runner blade is modelled. This mode is applied because the geometry of the analyzed runner blades is axis-
symmetric so as to hasten the simulation process. Meshing and grid boundary conditions in the turbo mode
runner blade model are shown in Figure 4. In the CFX, the pre-boundary and continuum conditions are defined
to determine the inlet, outlet, runner blades, hub and shroud. Figure 4 (a) shows a one runner blade model
meshed with a hexahedral structured pattern with the aim of accelerating the iteration process. Figure 4 (b)
shows the inlet side face of the water inlet which is on the right in the figure and the outlet side on the left as
indicated by the direction of the water flow arrow.
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(a)
(b)
Figure 4. CFD model (a) meshing and (b) grid and boundary conditions
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When viewed in terms of efficiency in Figure 5, turbine Type 2 almost consistently has higher
efficiency that turbine Type 1 at all rotational speeds except at 500 rpm. At the design point, namely, at a
rotational speed of 400 rpm, turbine Type 2 has an efficiency of 76.43%, a result which is approximately 2.6%
higher relative to that of the Type 1 counterpart. The curve line in the efficiency graph in Figure 5 indicates
that the efficiency decreases as the turbine rotation increases. The graph in Figure 5 is also in accordance with
research conducted by [27]–[29].
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(a) (b)
(c)
Figure 6. Velocity at blade: (a) contour of relative velocity, (b) velocity vectors at 50% span, and
(c) velocity streamlines
4. CONCLUSIONS
In this research, turbine runner optimization was performed using a surface vorticity model algorithm.
With this algorithm method, the efficiency and power of the water turbine is increased relative to that of the
initial design. Turbine performance can be predicted by performing CFD analysis on a three-dimensional model
with turbo mode to hasten the simulation process. The CFD simulation confirms that the efficiency of the
optimized turbine in the design specifications has increased by approximately 2.6% relative to that of the initial
design. The optimized turbine has greater efficiency at all rotational speeds from 300 to 475 rpm. Therefore,
the surface vorticity model algorithm can be used as a tool to improve the performance of a water turbine
runner by minimizing losses in the hydrofoil.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the Research Center for Electrical Power and Mechatronics – BRIN,
Center for Utilization and Innovation of Science and Technology (PPII)-BRIN for the use of computational
facilities through the Elsa service and the Department of Physics, FMIPA, Universitas Indonesia.
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BIOGRAPHIES OF AUTHORS
Int J Pow Elec & Dri Syst, Vol. 13, No. 2, June 2022: 1140-1149
Int J Pow Elec & Dri Syst ISSN: 2088-8694 1149
study (FS), detailed engineering design (DED), techno economic hydro power plant and energy
policy. He can be contacted at email: ridwanarief_rais@yahoo.com
Design and performance of very low head water turbines using a … (Ridwan Arief Subekti)