Study of Hydraulic Parameters' effect on Lift Based Vertical Axis In-Pipe Turbine for Power Generation

In recent years, the limitations of the non-renewable energy sources and the rising pollution of their overuse have led the attention to renewable and clean energy sources such as the potential energy in water resources. Because of vastly used water transportation pipelines and the existing extra pressure in these pipes, it has a high potential for generating electrical power using the in-pipe turbines. In this research, the designing, simulation, and power optimization of a particular kind of these turbines (lift type) are studied. The numerical simulation is performed by Ansys Fluent commercial package software using a 3D solver for unsteady and incompressible flow in conjunction with a proper turbulence model. After introducing the turbine's effective design parameters, the simulation of the in-pipe turbine with different geometry conditions and rotational speeds is performed and discussed. Then it is tried to enhance the generated power of the turbine using trial and error by changing the geometry conditions of the rotor. Lastly, by numerical simulation of different geometries and improving the generated power, the best turbine geometry is tested for experimental validation.