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
