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Study on performance and flow field of an undershot cross-flow water turbine comprising different number of blades

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Abstract

Recently, small hydroelectric generators have gained attention as a further development in water turbine technology for ultra low head drops in open channels. The authors have evaluated the application of cross-flow water turbines in open channels as an undershot type after removing the casings and guide vanes to substantially simplify these water turbines. However, because undershot cross-flow water turbines are designed on the basis of cross-flow water turbine runners used in typical pipelines, it remains unclear whether the number of blades has an effect on the performance or flow fields. Thus, in this research, experiments and numerical analyses are employed to study the performance and flow fields of undershot cross-flow water turbines with varying number of blades. The findings show that the turbine output and torque are lower, the fluctuation is significantly higher, and the turbine efficiency is higher for runners with 8 blades as opposed to those with 24 blades.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ibaraki University, 4-12-1 Nakanarusawa-cho, Hitachi-shi, Ibaraki, 316-8511, Japan

    Yasuyuki Nishi & Terumi Inagaki

  2. Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Ibaraki University, 4-12-1 Nakanarusawa-cho, Hitachi-shi, Ibaraki, 316-8511, Japan

    Kentaro Hatano

Authors
  1. Yasuyuki Nishi
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  2. Kentaro Hatano
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  3. Terumi Inagaki
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Correspondence to Yasuyuki Nishi.

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Nishi, Y., Hatano, K. & Inagaki, T. Study on performance and flow field of an undershot cross-flow water turbine comprising different number of blades. J. Therm. Sci. 26, 413–420 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-017-0956-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11630-017-0956-1

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