SELECTION OF HYDROKINETIC TURBINES

Abstract

Water current turbine or hydrokinetic turbines are used to generate electricity directly from the flowing water in a river or a stream and practically no head is needed to produce the small scale power. This technology has not been conventionally adopted so far and can be future renewable energy source for developing countries. Most of the hydrokinetic potential of river currents has not been explored till now, due to less awareness and in-efficient technologies of hydrokinetic turbines compared to conventional turbine. Under the present dissertation work, an attempt has been made for selection of hydrokinetic turbine under the different condition. Based on the literature survey, steps are evolved for selection of hydrokinetic turbine, it is necessary to obtain the Coefficient of Performance and efficiency based on the working parameters techniques such as tip speed ratio, aspect ratio, overlap ratio and field parameters techniques such as Reynolds number, Froude number, free flow velocity, water density, flow variability, velocity and turbulence and effect of depth variability in river, manmade canal, irrigation canal, or ocean. Further by identifying the sites and analyzing the hydrokinetic potential for the water resources and characteristic of different sites have been studied thoroughly. The various parameters are studied which are required to select the turbine under different field condition parameters like velocity of stream and depth of flow. After studying published works of various authors and collecting data from literature, a nomogram is prepared for diameter v/s speed of turbine considering the velocity of flow. It has been observed that for low speed (rpm) and minimum tip speed ratio, Savonious turbine is suitable. While for large variation of speed, Horizontal axis turbine is suitable with variation of diameter from 280 mm to 3000mm. It is also found that installation parameters play a critical role to enhance the performance of hydrokinetic turbine. It is necessary to prepare suitable selection procedure of hydrokinetic turbine for a site under different working conditions