| Issue |
MATEC Web Conf.
Volume 87, 2017
The 9th International Unimas Stem Engineering Conference (ENCON 2016) “Innovative Solutions for Engineering and Technology Challenges”
|
|
|---|---|---|
| Article Number | 05004 | |
| Number of page(s) | 5 | |
| Section | Electrical and Electronic Engineering | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/20178705004 | |
| Published online | 04 August 2017 | |
CFD Modelling of a Pump as Turbine (PAT) with Rounded Leading Edge Impellers for Micro Hydro Systems
1 Faculty of Engineering, University Malaysia Sabah, 84500, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
2 Faculty of Engineering, University Malaysia Sarawak, 94300, Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia
a Corresponding author: lanz_mr@ums.edu.my
A Pump as Turbine (PAT) is one of micro hydro system components that is used to substitute a commercially available turbine due to its wide availability and low acquisition cost. However, PAT have high hydraulic losses due to differences in pump-turbine operation and hydraulic design. The fluid flowing inside the PAT is subjected to hydraulic losses due to the longer flow passage and unmatched fluid flow within the wall boundaries. This paper presents the effect of rounding the impeller leading edges of the pump on turbine performance. A CFD model of a PAT was designed to simulate virtual performance for the analysis. The aim of this study is to observe the internal hydraulic performance resulting from the changes in the performance characteristics. Highest efficiency was recorded at 17.0 l/s, an increase of 0.18%. The simulation results reveal that there is an improvement in hydraulic performance at overflow operation. The velocity vector visualization shows that there is a reduction in wake and consequently less flow separation along impeller flow passages. However, adjusting the sensitive impeller inlet geometry will also alter the velocity inlet vector and consequently change the velocity triangles for the turbo machinery system.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2017
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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