Numerical investigation for design and critical performance evaluation of a horizontal axis hydrokinetic turbine

We will discuss findings from our numerical investigation on the hydrodynamic performance of horizontal axis hydrokinetic turbines (HAHkT) under different turbine geometries and flow conditions. Hydrokinetic turbines are a class of zero-head hydropower systems which utilizes kinetic energy of flowing water to drive a generator. However, such turbines very often suffer from low efficiency which is primarily controlled by tip-speed ratio, solidity, angle of attack and number of blades. A detailed CFD study was performed using two-dimensional and three dimensional numerical models to examine the effect of each of these parameters on the performance of small HAHkTs having power capacities $\le $ 10 kW. The two-dimensional numerical results provide an optimum angle of attack that maximizes the lift as well as lift to drag ratio yielding maximum power output. However three-dimensional numerical studies estimate optimum turbine solidity and blade numbers that produces maximum power coefficient at a given tip speed ratio. In addition, simulations were also performed to observe the axial velocity deficit at the turbine rotor downstream for different tip-speed ratios to obtain both qualitative and quantitative details about stall delay phenomena and the energy loss suffered by the turbine under ambient flow condition.