Performance Evaluation of a Multi-Stage Gravitational Water Vortex Turbine with optimum number of Blades
Author(s):
Aamer Sharif, Javed Ahmed Khan Tipu, Muhammad Arif, Muhammad Salman Abbasi, Absaar Ul Jabbar, Adnan Aslam Noon, Muftooh Ur Rehman Siddiqi
Affiliation(s):
Department of Mechanical Engineering, CECOS University of IT and Emerging Science, Peshawar, Pakistan
Department of Mechanical Engineering International Islamic University, Islamabad, Pakistan
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
National University of Science and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan
Mechanical, Biomedical and Design Engineering Department, School of Engineering and Technology, Aston University, England
Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Gravitational water vortex turbine is low head (0.7 m-3 m) micro hydro power plant that produces electricity from rivers, streams and irrigation canal. The Gravitational water vortex turbine is a novel technology in the field of micro hydro power due to its cost effectiveness and requires low head and flow rates. In the present study, the performance evaluation of a multi-stage gravitational water vortex turbine with various blades number having savonius curved blade shape assembled in a conical basin are investigated experimentally. The effect of blade number on output performance parameters such as torque, rotational speed, vortex height and efficiency are examined under varying water flow rates. The performance of three, four and five-blade multi-stage gravitational water vortex turbine increased at optimum flow rates and then decrease at maximum flow rates. The results showed that the overall performance in term of rotational speed, torque, vortex height and efficiency of a four blade multi-stage gravitational water vortex turbine is higher than that of a three-blade and five-blade configuration. The maximum torque and rotational speed of three blades are (0.7 N-m, 132 rpm) , four blades are (0.94 N-m, 139 rpm, and five blades configuration are (0.84 N-m, 114 rpm) while the maximum vortex height and efficiency of three blades are (1m, 42 %), four blades are (1.2 m, 47 %) and five blades configuration are (0.98 m, 43 %) respectively.