Gravitational Water Vortex Power Plant Research Project, Nepal, Micro Hydro, Renewable Energy

The world is competing for energy and hydropower is a clean source of energy. The field of Hydropower has often witnessed the discovery of new types of plants and components therein, by using simple principles of physics and mechanics. Gravitational water vortex power plant (GWVPP) is a new type of low head turbine in which mechanical energy of free surface flowing water is converted to kinetic energy by tangentially passing the water to a basin, which forms a water vortex. This study is focused on the optimization of runner which can improve the efficiency of the GWVPP to much more extent. The analysis is carried out by preparing three different CAD models of runners and one was successfully tested. Focusing on blade profile, mesh generation CFX package was used to analyze the fluid flow through turbine hub and blade. This approach was carried out on three different turbine models with straight, twisted and curved blade profiles and results were used for efficiency evaluation of each turbines. The computational result showed curved profile to be best efficient profile than other two which was ensured by a experimental testing of the efficient model of runner along with piloting the project.

• #people_blogs
• #micro_hydro
• #renewable_energy
• #low_head_turbine
• #water_vortex
• #runner