10.1007/s40095-022-00495-4

Numerical analysis of the effect of runner-to-basin diameter ratio on the performance of gravitational water vortex turbine in a scroll basin

  • Amanuel Tesfaye Kora*1,
  • Venkata Ramayya Ancha1,
  • Getachew Shunki Tibba2,
  1. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Jimma University Institute of Technology, Jimma, ET
  2. College of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering, Addis Ababa Science and Technology University, Addis Ababa, ET

Published in Issue 2022-05-09

How to Cite

Kora, A. T., Ancha, V. R., & Tibba, G. S. (2022). Numerical analysis of the effect of runner-to-basin diameter ratio on the performance of gravitational water vortex turbine in a scroll basin. International Journal of Energy and Environmental Engineering, 13(4 (December 2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40095-022-00495-4
Crossref
Scopus
Google Scholar
Europe PMC

Abstract

Abstract A gravitational water vortex turbine is a new development suitable for low to ultralow head with medium to low flow that also facilitates aeration of the water and harvesting of power during water transit. Recent investigations have shown that curved blade profiles are more efficient to harness kinetic energy of the vortex. However, understanding of the optimum runner position along the vortex flow field in a scroll basin is still incomplete considering the design parameters such as vortex–blade interaction, the runner-to-basin diameter ratio and its effect on torque and power output. In this regard, a numerical investigation on the performance of such a turbine has been carried out using OpenFOAM. The effect of runner to basin diameter ratio on performance parameters such as effective head, torque, power and efficiency has been characterized after validation of the methodology using analytical model predictions. The results suggest that relative size of a runner strongly influences the rotational speed acquired and torque developed on account of a stronger vortex near the air-core and lower tangential velocity at higher radii. This work demonstrates that either reducing the size of runner blades close to the orifice region or extending to the far-field region can both result in a reduction of the runner performance. The maximum efficiencies predicted are 25.8%, 42.9% and 41.2% for runner-to-basin diameter ratios 0.18, 0.27 and 0.36, respectively. The optimum runner size is observed to be one-fourth of the basin diameter and predictive performance correlations have been developed for power output and efficiency in this regard as a function of the rotational speed and runner diameter. Hence, the outcomes from this study will be helpful to design and predict performance of a gravitational water vortex power plant with scroll basin for a given flow and head at a particular site. Moreover, it can also be used as a pointer towards further development of gravitational water vortex turbine technology.

Keywords

  • Gravitational water vortex turbine,
  • Vortex–blade interaction,
  • Runner-to-basin diameter ratio,
  • Performance parameters,
  • Air-core

References

  1. Hoes et al. (2017) Systematic high-resolution assessment of global hydropower potential 12(2) (pp. 1-10) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0171844
  2. IEA: Global Energy and CO2 Status Report: The latest trends in energy and emissions. Technical report (2018)
  3. REN21: Renewables 2018 global status report. Technical report (2018).
  4. https://www.ren21.net/reports/global-status-report/
  5. Timilsina et al. (2018) Water vortex hydropower technology: a state-of-the-art review of developmental trends (pp. 1737-1760) https://doi.org/10.1007/S10098-018-1589-0
  6. Unknown (2006) Mini-grid and grid electrification technologies
  7. Williamson et al. (2014) Low head pico hydro turbine selection using a multi-criteria analysis (pp. 43-50) https://doi.org/10.1016/J.RENENE.2012.06.020
  8. Ramos et al. (2012) Low-head energy conversion: a conceptual design and laboratory investigation of a microtubular hydro propeller (pp. 1-10) https://doi.org/10.5402/2012/846206
  9. Rahman et al. (2016) Experimental study the effects of water pressure and turbine blade lengths and numbers on the model free vortex power generation system 2(9) (pp. 13-17)
  10. Bajracharya et al. (2020) Effects of geometrical parameters in gravitational water vortex turbines with conical basin (pp. 1-16) https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/5373784
  11. Rahman et al. (2017) A review on the development of gravitational water vortex power plant as alternative renewable energy resources https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/217/1/012007
  12. Zotlöterer, F.: Gravitation water vortex power plants (2022).
  13. http://www.zotloeterer.com/welcome/gravitation-water-vortex-power-plants/
  14. Accessed 24 Jan 2022
  15. Chattha, J.A., Cheema, T.A., Khan, N.H.: Numerical investigation of basin geometries for vortex generation in a gravitational water vortex power plant. In: 2017 8th International Renewable Energy Congress (IREC), pp. 1–5. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., Amman, Jordan (2017).
  16. https://doi.org/10.1109/IREC.2017.7926028
  17. Zotlöterer, F.: Hydroelectric Power Plant. WO2004061295A2 (2004)
  18. Mulligan and Casserly (2010) BE Project Report Institute of Technology
  19. Mühle et al. (2013) Experimental investigations on a water vortex power plant (pp. 41-46) https://doi.org/10.1365/S35147-013-0649-Y
  20. Bajracharya, T.R., Chaulagai, R.K.: Developing innovative low head water turbine for free-flowing streams suitable for micro-hydropower in flat (Terai) regions in Nepal. Kathmandu: Center for Applied Research and Development (CARD), Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Nepal (2012)
  21. Turbulent: Technology–Turbulent Website (2022).
  22. https://www.turbulent.be/technology/
  23. Accessed 24 Jan 2022
  24. Marian et al. (2012) The concept and theoretical study of micro hydropower plant with gravitational vortex and turbine with rapidity steps (pp. 219-226)
  25. Dhakal et al. (2014) Development and testing of runner and conical basin for gravitational water vortex power plant (pp. 140-148) https://doi.org/10.3126/JIE.V10I1.10895
  26. Dhakal et al. (2015) Comparison of cylindrical and conical basins with optimum position of runner: Gravitational water vortex power plant (pp. 662-669) https://doi.org/10.1016/J.RSER.2015.04.030
  27. Sánchez, A.R., Rio, J.A.S.D., Muñoz, A.J.G., Montoya, J.A.P.: Numerical and experimental evaluation of concave and convex designs for gravitational water vortex turbine. J. Adv. Res. Fluid Mech. Thermal Sci.
  28. 64
  29. , 160–172 (2019)
  30. Mulligan, S., Hull, P.: Design and optimisation of a water vortex hydropower plant. Research Poster. Institute of Technology, Sligo Research Showcase 2011, Institute of Technology, Sligo, Ireland (2011)
  31. Mulligan, S., Sherlock, R., Casserly, J.: Numerical and experimental modeling of the water surface in a vortex hydroelectric plant in the absence of a turbine impeller. In: Proceedings of the 23rd Conference of Hydraulics and Hydraulic Engineering. Convegno Nazionale di Idraulica e Costruzioni Idrauliche (IDRA), Brescia, Italy (2012)
  32. Mulligan et al. (2019) An improved model for the tangential velocity distribution in strong free-surface vortices: an experimental and theoretical study (pp. 547-560) https://doi.org/10.1080/00221686.2018.1499050
  33. Mih (1990) Analysis Of fine particle concentrations in a combined vortex (pp. 392-396) https://doi.org/10.1080/00221689009499078
  34. Vatistas et al. (1991) A simpler model for concentrated vortices (pp. 73-76) https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00198434
  35. Hite and Mih (1994) Velocity of airCore vortices at hydraulic intakes (pp. 284-297) https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9429(1994)120:3(284)
  36. Hydraulic Characteristics of Vertical Vortex at Hydraulic Intakes: liang Chen, Y., Wu, C., Ye, M., ming Ju, X. Journal of Hydrodynamics
  37. 19
  38. , 143–149 (2007).
  39. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1001-6058(07)60040-7
  40. Wang et al. (2011) Comparison between empirical formulae of intake vortices (pp. 113-116) https://doi.org/10.1080/00221686.2010.534279
  41. Sun and Liu (2015) Theoretical and experimental study on the vortex at hydraulic intakes (pp. 787-796) https://doi.org/10.1080/00221686.2015.1076533
  42. Kayastha, M., Raut, P., Subedi, N.K., Ghising, S.T., Dhakal, R.: CFD evaluation of performance of Gravitational Water Vortex Turbine at different runner positions. In: Kantipur Engineering College (KEC) Conference, pp. 17–25. engrXiv, Dhapakhel Lalitpur (2019).
  43. https://doi.org/10.31224/OSF.IO/D9QN3
  44. Power et al. (2016) A Parametric Experimental Investigation of the Operating Conditions of Gravitational Vortex Hydropower (GVHP) (pp. 112-119) https://doi.org/10.7763/JOCET.2016.V4.263
  45. Khan, N.H.: Blade Optimization of Gravitational Water Vortex Turbine. Master’s thesis (2016).
  46. https://www.academia.edu/34334744/Blade_Optimization_of_Gravitational_Water_Vortex_Turbine
  47. Nishi and Inagaki (2017) Performance and flow field of a gravitation vortex type water turbine https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/2610508
  48. Rahman, M.M., Hong, T., Tamiri, F.: Effects of Inlet Flow Rate and Penstock’s Geometry on the Performance of Gravitational Water Vortex Power Plant. In: 8th International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, pp. 2968–2976. Institut Teknologi Bandung, Bandung, Indonesia (2018)
  49. Ullah et al. (2019) Performance analysis of multi-stage gravitational water vortex turbine https://doi.org/10.1016/J.ENCONMAN.2019.111788
  50. Ullah et al. (2020) Preliminary experimental study on multi-stage gravitational water vortex turbine in a conical basin (pp. 2516-2529) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2019.07.128
  51. Kueh et al. (2017) Experimental study to the influences of rotational speed and blade shape on water vortex turbine performance https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/822/1/012066
  52. Drioli (1947) Su un particolare tipo di imbocco per pozzi di scarico (scaricatore idraulico a vortice) (pp. 447-452)
  53. Mulligan et al. (2016) Effects of geometry on strong free-surface vortices in subcritical approach flows 142(11) https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)HY.1943-7900.0001194
  54. Ferziger, J.H., Perić, M.: Computational Methods for Fluid Dynamics, 3rd edn. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg (2002).
  55. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-56026-2
  56. Versteeg, H.K., Malalasekera, W.: An Introduction to Computational Fluid Dynamics: The Finite, vol. Method, 2nd edn. Pearson Education Limited, Essex, England (2007)
  57. Ai and Mak (2014) Potential use of reduced-scale models in CFD simulations to save numerical resources: theoretical analysis and case study of flow around an isolated building (pp. 25-29) https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JWEIA.2014.08.009
  58. Damián, S.M.: Description and utilization of interFoam multiphase solver. International Center for Computational Methods in Engineering (2012)
  59. Mulligan, S., Casserly, J., Sherlock, R.: In: Gourbesville, P., Cunge, J.A., Caignaert, G. (eds.) Experimental and Numerical Modelling of Free-Surface Turbulent Flows in Full Air-Core Water Vortices, pp. 549–569. Springer, Singapore (2016).
  60. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-287-615-7_37
  61. Menter et al. (2003) Ten years of industrial experience with the SST turbulence model (pp. 625-632)
  62. Smirnov and Menter (2009) Sensitization of the SST turbulence model to rotation and curvature by applying the Spalart-Shur correction term (pp. 1-8) https://doi.org/10.1115/1.3070573/468836
  63. Hirt and Nichols (1981) Volume of fluid (VOF) method for the dynamics of free boundaries (pp. 201-225) https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9991(81)90145-5
  64. Müller et al. (2018) Numerical analysis of the compromise between power output and fish-friendliness in a vortex power plant (pp. 86-98) https://doi.org/10.1080/24705357.2018.1521709
  65. Nishi et al. (2020) Loss analysis of gravitation vortex type water turbine and influence of flow rate on the turbine’s performance (pp. 1103-1117) https://doi.org/10.1016/J.RENENE.2020.03.186
  66. Greenshields, C.: OpenFOAM: User Guide. OpenFOAM Foundation Ltd., (2018). OpenFOAM Foundation Ltd.
  67. https://cfd.direct/openfoam/user-guide/
  68. Regmi, N., Dura, H., Shakya, S.R.: Design and Analysis of Gravitational Water Vortex Basin and Runner. In: Proceedings of IOE Graduate Conference, vol. 7, pp. 157–164. Institute of Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Nepal (2019)
  69. Wilhelm, D.: Rotating flow simulations with OpenFOAM. International Journal of Aeronautical Science and Aerospace Research IJASAR) S1:001, 1–7 (2015).
  70. https://doi.org/10.21256/ZHAW-1441
  71. Freitas (2002) The issue of numerical uncertainty (pp. 237-248) https://doi.org/10.1016/S0307-904X(01)00058-0