Parametric study of multiple configurations of pico hydrokinetic turbines using CFD

¹ Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, 26600 Pekan, Pahang, Malaysia
² Fellow Researcher, Centre for Earth Resources Research & Management (CERRM), Universiti Malaysia Pahang, Lebuhraya Tun Razak, 26300 Gambang, Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia

^a Corresponding author: tasneem@ump.edu.my

Abstract

This paper aims to study the river flow characteristics over pico hydrokinetic turbines with variation of arrangement using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software. This study is required to obtain the optimum spacing and angle between the turbines which leads to higher turbine effective utilisation and performance in terms of power generated. In this study, a river model is created in CFD software to simulate the water flow over the turbines as they are placed in a river to obtain the water flow characteristic. Different types of array arrangements are simulated in the river model. Multiple turbines are used to accumulate more power. The turbine model which consists of eight turbines is arranged in series with different spacing, ranging from a size of diameter (1D) to four times diameter (4D) of turbine is simulated to identify the optimum spacing between the turbines. Then, the simulation is continued using a sufficient spacing of 0.5D with angles ranging of 10° to 60° from datum of original position to minimise the disruption of the aquatic environment. The velocity profiles of each turbine are obtained and analysed. The 4D spacing and 40° angle displayed higher average velocities compared to other arrangements. Thus, from this study, the 4D and 40° are deduced as the optimum spacing and angle, respectively.