Computational Analysis of the Performance of a Vertical Axis Turbine in a Water Pipe

In this study, a computational analysis was performed for a vertical-axis turbine which was installed in a water pipe to collect unused energy from the flow inside the pipe. The optimized operating conditions of the turbine were identified by comparing the energy-collecting performance obtained at different tip-speed ratios (TSRs). The turbine achieved the maximum efficiency of 22% at a TSR of 2.4 and collected 33 kW. Additional analyses were conducted to verify the effects of tip clearance, which is the distance between the turbine blades and the pipe wall, which showed that a higher efficiency was obtained with a smaller tip clearance. We also verified the effects of the turbine’s operating conditions and tip clearance on the flow field around the blades and wake of the turbine.

[1]  T. Kyono,et al.  Conversion of Unused Heat Energy to Electricity by Means of Thermoelectric Generation in Condenser , 2002, IEEE Power Engineering Review.

[2]  I. Owen,et al.  Near-wake characteristics of a model horizontal axis tidal stream turbine , 2014 .

[3]  Hongxing Yang,et al.  A novel vertical axis water turbine for power generation from water pipelines , 2013 .

[4]  Seung-Jae Lee,et al.  Experimental study on kinetic energy conversion of horizontal axis tidal stream turbine , 2016 .

[5]  J.G. Vining,et al.  Ocean Wave Energy Conversion - A Survey , 2006, Conference Record of the 2006 IEEE Industry Applications Conference Forty-First IAS Annual Meeting.

[6]  Beom-Soo Hyun,et al.  Parametric Numerical Study on the Performance of Helical Tidal Stream Turbines , 2011 .

[7]  Navid R. Moheimani,et al.  Sustainable solar energy conversion to chemical and electrical energy , 2013 .

[8]  Andrew Plummer,et al.  Numerical investigation of wave–structure interaction using OpenFOAM , 2014 .

[9]  F. R. Menter,et al.  Influence of freestream values on k-omega turbulence model predictions , 1992 .

[10]  Thierry Maître,et al.  Modeling of the flow in a Darrieus water turbine: Wall grid refinement analysis and comparison with experiments , 2013 .

[11]  F. Menter.  Two-equation eddy-viscosity turbulence models for engineering applications , 1994 .

[12]  Hyunjun Jung,et al.  Unsteady flow around a two-dimensional section of a vertical axis turbine for tidal stream energy conversion , 2009 .

[13]  Anthony F. Molland,et al.  Power and thrust measurements of marine current turbines under various hydrodynamic flow conditions in a cavitation tunnel and a towing tank , 2007 .

[14]  Christopher C. Pain,et al.  A fidelity fluid-structure interaction model for vertical axis tidal turbines in turbulence flows , 2019, Applied Energy.

[15]  Idzumi Okajima,et al.  Energy conversion of biomass with supercritical and subcritical water using large-scale plants. , 2014, Journal of bioscience and bioengineering.

[16]  V. T. Ranganathan,et al.  A Method of Tracking the Peak Power Points for a Variable Speed Wind Energy Conversion System , 2002, IEEE Power Engineering Review.

[17]  John E. Quaicoe,et al.  Hydrokinetic energy conversion systems and assessment of horizontal and vertical axis turbines for river and tidal applications: A technology status review , 2009 .

[18]  Ju Hyun Lee,et al.  Computational methods for performance analysis of horizontal axis tidal stream turbines , 2012 .

[19]  D. Wilcox.  Formulation of the k-w Turbulence Model Revisited , 2008 .

[20]  A. Bahaj,et al.  Wake studies of a 1/30th scale horizontal axis marine current turbine , 2007 .

[21]  T. Stoesser,et al.  Three-dimensionality of the wake recovery behind a vertical axis turbine , 2019, Renewable Energy.