Investigation of the effects of a blade profile geometry in a hinged blade cross axis turbine

• Main Author: Fernando, Arvin H.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2014
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/4585
• Institution: De La Salle University

Hydrokinetic Turbine is a new emerging class of water technology that uses water velocity to produce energy. Unlike traditional hydro power system which requires dam and an artificial head. Small scale Hydro power system have a lot of potential in providing electricity in remote communities. However some of this sites have low head and shallow river beds where traditional water turbine and axial flow type hydrokinetic turbine have difficulty in generating power. Hydrovolts company invented the hinged blade cross axis turbine or the switch blade turbine that is design to generate electricity from water currents in irrigation canal or artificial water way which are not dependent on elevation and depth of the water. The hinged blade cross axis turbine was just recently patented years ago and further research and studies are needed in this type of turbine. There are still no available data regarding the flip wing turbine performance and characteristic. The Hydrovolt Company is still in the process of further developing and improving the flip wing turbine as this type of turbine is not yet commercially available in the market. An investigation and analysis of the hinged blade cross axis turbine was done in this research, characterizing its performance on different blade profile geometry parameter such as no. of blade, length, thickness, angled and a symmetrical foil shape blade. A small scale prototype of a hinged blade cross axis turbine with different blade configuration was fabricated and tested on a experimental laboratory set up. A prototype river flow tank simulator located at De La Salle University Micro Hydro Area vicinity was also fabricated to test the said turbine. Analysis of Variance Method was used in the comparison of different blade profile geometry configuration. The results shows that there might be an increase of power output if the blade is oriented at a good angle. Having a symmetrical foil shape blade might have a small amount of increase of power as well as adding additional blades. Thickening The turbine efficiency measured in the experimental laboratory set up is quite small. Typical Hydrokinetic Turbine are designed in a larger scale and the prototype that was tested is comparatively small compare to the actual hydrokinetic turbine which might limit the efficiency of the turbine tested. Linear Regression and Matlab Neural Network was used and compared to find the optimize blade configuration combination on a specific constraint range. There is a slight difference of result between the two method. This study might aid future designer in developing and testing their hydrokinetic turbine such that this turbine might provide alternative turbine design solution on low head and shallow river application.