Numerical simulation of the inlet channel geometry influence in the torque generated at the gravitation water vortex turbine

Abstract

The gravitational water vortex turbine is presented as an alternative for electric power generation for both low head and water flow conditions, additionally it is easy and low cost to implement and maintenance. However, the experimentally reported efficiencies motivate the scientific community to develop new geometries in order to improve its performance. First, it is not clear how the efficiency of the turbine is obtained and second, not all studies report it. The turbine is mainly made up of a tank, the rotor and the electric generator. The geometry of the tank is important because it stabilizes the fluid and in this component that the generation of the vortex is induced, which determines, added to other factors like tank geometry and runner, the global efficiency of the turbine. The primary purpose of this study is to compare numerically the torque generated at six (6) geometrical configurations of the basin inlet channel for Gravitational Vortex Turbine (GVT) with a Savonius rotor. The study was developed in ANSYS® CFX, where a transient state VOF model was configured with a BSL K − ω turbulence model and a discretization a discretization of the control volume made in the ICEM module. The highest torque was 0.553 Nm at 25 rpm for the trapezoidal curved inlet channel geometry, increasing the efficiency respect to the conventional Square inlet channel of the 2.73 %. The increase of tangential velocity contributes positively to the vortex generation, and consequently, an increase in torque is obtained. On the other hand, the design of the rotor considerably affects the performance of the GVT, where it may or may not take advantage of the kinetic energy of the vortex