DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF AXIAL FLOW PROPELLER FREE VORTEX WATER TURBINE AT LOW HEAD

• Main Author: Argo, Wisnu
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/62776
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Indonesia as a tropical country with abundant natural resources has the potential for electrical energy sourced from renewable energy with a total geothermal potential of more than 400 Gigawatts, solar plants have an additional 11 Megawatts, wind and water energy potentials reach 150 Gigawatts. One of the abundant renewable energy potentials is the potential for low head water. Turbine technology that utilizes water flow at low water fall height can be an alternative for providing electrical energy. In this study, the design process was carried out to obtain the design of the guide blades and moving blades, at the best performance of the water turbine with free vortex criteria for further analysis between numerical results or errors using CASCADE with numerical simulations using the Ansys program. The design methodology is based on the design method in the Performance Turbomachinery book by R.I Lewis, then the design uses the CASCADE, Re.Des, and the STACK applications so that the coordinates of the turbine blades are obtained. Followed by a three-dimensional design drawing using the Autodesk Inventor and Ansys applications to get results in the form of velocity field and rotor performance as a results for evaluating the performance of a water turbine with free vortex criteria. In this study, information was produced regarding the free vortex propeller type axial flow water turbine using a design with 13 blades and 5 blades. The hub diameter is 0.2 m and the tip blade diameter is 0.4 m. The analysis of the blades is divided into 11 segments with each segment having a thickness of 18.18 mm. The characteristics of the torque and power generated on the free vortex propeller type axial flow water turbine at low head using CASCADE, Re.Des, and Ansys numerical simulations. The power generated is 13,677.38 watts in the numerical simulation of Ansys, 747.98 watts lower than the results of the analysis using CASCADE of 14,425.36 watts. The errors between the two methods (CASCADE analysis, Re.Des and numerical simulation), the inflow has an average error value of 3.22% and the outflow 2.81%.