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Effect of number of blades on performance and wake recovery for a vertical axis helical hydrokinetic turbine

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  • Reddy, K. Bheemalingeswara
  • Bhosale, Amit C.

Abstract

Hydrokinetic turbine provides a viable option for tapping energy from free-flowing water, making it an attractive contributor to the renewable power landscape. This study investigates the effects of blade number and solidity on the performance and wake recovery of a small-scale vertical axis helical hydrokinetic turbine under different tip speed ratios and inflow velocities. Computational fluid dynamics simulations are employed, followed by experimental validation, to analyze power, self-start, torque pulsations, velocity deficit and flow field characteristics. The highest power coefficient is found to be 0.24 for a 4-bladed rotor with 0.3 solidity at a tip speed ratio of 1.0 and inflow velocity of 1.0 m/s. The performance of the studied rotors decreases as inflow velocity increases due to high turbulence experienced, resulting in flow separation. The self-start characteristics are shown to improve with solidity, while torque pulsations are greatly diminished with the increase in number of blades. The wake analysis results show that the velocity deficit and turbulence intensity increase significantly as the number of blades increases. Moreover, the time-averaged streamwise velocity values are observed to reach almost 95 % at a downstream distance of 19–25 times the rotor diameter for investigated rotors.

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  • Reddy, K. Bheemalingeswara & Bhosale, Amit C., 2024. "Effect of number of blades on performance and wake recovery for a vertical axis helical hydrokinetic turbine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 299(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:299:y:2024:i:c:s0360544224012933
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2024.131520
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