Experiments and CFD Analyses for a New Reaction Microhydro Propeller with Five Blades

Abstract

This works aims to develop and study a new reaction microhydro tubular propeller turbine with five blades as a promising answer to solve the lack of energy in rural and remote areas. The first stage is to validate numerical and experimental tests made for the flow behavior for different values of head, discharge, and rotational impeller speed. Using specific mathematical formulations, a blade model configuration is developed based on the velocity triangles at the impeller inlet and outlet and experimental results based on pressure, discharge, and velocity profiles in different turbine sections. Through characteristic parameters, performance curves are obtained allowing comparisons between experimental and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) results. Also, an evaluation of the hydrodynamic behavior is made for a scaled model application by similarity turbo machines theory.