Year: 2016
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Small hydropower generation is one of important alternative energy, and enormous potential lie in the small hydropower. However, efficiency of small hydroturbines is lower than that of large one. Then, there are demands for small hydroturbines to keep high performance in wide flow rate range. Therefore, we adopted contra-rotating rotors, which can be expected to achieve high performance. In this research, performance of the contra-rotating small hydroturbine with 60mm casing diameter was investigated by an experiment and numerical analysis. Efficiency of the contra-rotating small hydroturbine was high in pico-hydroturbine and high efficiency could be kept in wide flow rate range, however the performance of a rear rotor decreased significantly in partial flow rates. Then, internal flow condition, which was difficult to measure experimentally, was investigated by the numerical flow analysis. Then, a relation between the performance and internal flow condition was considered by the numerical analysis result.
Authors: Toru SHIGEMITSU, Yasutoshi TAKESHIMA, Yuya OGAWA, Junichiro FUKUTOMI
Institution: Tokushima University
Language: English
Subfield: Mechanics of Materials
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2564107800