Numerical and experimental evaluation of the performance of agravitational vortex turbine rotor

Abstract

In this study, the evaluation of the rotor performance of agravitational vortex turbine (TVG) for its application indistributed power generation is presented. A numerical analysiswas carried out on a specific configuration of a TVG,characterized by its spiral inlet and conical discharge. Thedimensions of the discharge chamber and the inlet channel, suchas the inlet channel width (w), length (L), and height (h), thedischarge cone height (H) and diameter (d), and the envelopeangle (γ) were determined through previous optimization studiesdocumented in the literature. These dimensions are related to thebasin diameter (D), which was set at 500 mm for this study. Theratios used, such as L/D, h/D, H/D, γ w/D and d/D were 1.518,0.565, 1.572, 92.41°, 0.362, and 0.108, respectively.The rotor has a curvature and a helical pitch angle of 68.8°, has 6blades, a rotor height of 200 mm and the middle section of therotor is 314.4 mm (0.4H) from the top of the discharge cone, withan lower and upper diameter of151.60 mm and 284.44 mm. Usinga three-dimensional computational domain and unsteady flowsimulations, efficiency curves as a function of angular velocitywere obtained. In addition, the TVG was manufactured andexperimental tests were carried out on a laboratory-scale testbench to validate its performance. These tests allowed us tocompare the experimental results (33.84% at 88 RPM) with thenumerical results (32.67% at 106,667 RPM), revealing adifference of 3.37% between the maximum efficiency values. Itis essential to continue the turbine optimization process to ensurethat the designed TVG plays a role in fostering sustainability andfacilitating the shift towards cleaner and sustainable energyalternatives.