• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.10
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• pp.675-680
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• 2017

Considering that most sewage treatment facilities have a water head of less than 2.0 m and a constant flow rate, the development of a small hydro power generation device capable of maintaining stable power generation and efficiency is urgently needed. In this study, a numerical analysis using the CFD code was carried out to develop a drag force type vertical axis hydro turbine for the improvement of the production efficiency of small-scale hydro energy underlow flow velocity conditions. The blade pressure changes and internal flows were analyzed in the presence or absence of hydro turbine blade holes at a flow velocity of less than 2.0 m/s. The pressure distribution of the hydro turbine blades with holes was found to be about 5.1 % lower than that of the hydro turbine blades without holes. The analysis of the internal flow around the water tank and hydro turbine blade revealed that the flow velocity varied with the vector distribution and that the flow velocity of the hydro turbine blades with holes was 5.6 % less than that of the hydro turbine blades without holes. It is believed that forming a hole in the blade may be helpful for its structural safety.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.30-37
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• 2012

A two dimensional Darrieus-type turbine has been proposed for the hydropower utilization of extra-low head less than 2m. In a practical use of Darrieus-type hydro-turbine, head and flow rate may be varied temporally and seasonally. Considering that the cost advantage is required for the low head hydro turbine system, the Darrieus turbine should be operated with high efficiency in the wider range of flow rate possibly by using an additional device with simpler mechanism. In the present paper, an adjustment of inlet nozzle section by lowering the inlet nozzle height is proposed to obtain the preferable inlet velocity in low flow rate conditions. Effects of resulting spanwise partial inlet flow are investigated. Finally, an effective modification of inlet nozzle height over flow rate variation is shown.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.22-29
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• 2008

Clean and renewable energy technologies using ocean energy give us non-polluting alternatives to fossil and nuclear-fueled power plants to meet establishment of countermeasures against the global warming and growing demand for electrical energy. Among the ocean energy resources, wave power takes a growing interest because of its enormous amount of potential energy in the world. Therefore, various types of wave power conversion system to capture the energy of ocean waves have been developed. However, suitable turbine type is not normalized yet because of relatively low efficiency of the turbine systems. The purpose of this study is to investigate the internal flow and performance characteristics of a cross-flow type hydro turbine, which will be built in a caisson for wave power generation. Numerical simulation using a commercial CFD code is conducted to clarify the effects of the turbine rotation speed and flow rate variation on the turbine characteristics. The results show that the output power of the cross-flow type hydro turbine with symmetric nozzle shape is obtained mainly from Stage 2. Turbine inlet configuration should be designed to obtain large amount of flow rate because the static pressure and absolute tangential velocity are influenced considerably by inlet flow rate.

• Journal of Power System Engineering
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.105-110
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• 2006

Among many other alternative energy resources, small scale hydro power has been brought into attention as a reliable source of energy today, which had been relatively neglected since 1960s. Especially, Kaplan micro-turbine can be applied to various kind of small hydro power plants, such as reservoirs for agriculture purpose, sewage treatment plants and water purification plants. However present low head of Kaplan micro-turbines and small scale hydro turbines, have limitations in the minimum required head and flow rate for efficient operation. This research is to develop modeling analysis for the Kaplan micro-turbine, which can improve economical features of small hydro power plants. The contents and scope of this research are the efficiency improvement of Kaplan micro-turbine.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.19-25
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• 2015

As a core component of a hydropower station, hydro turbines play a vital role in the integration of a power station. Research on the technology of hydro turbine is continuously increasing with the development of water electricity. On the basis of one-dimensional loss analysis, for three-dimension design, there are a lot of dimension of the internal flow passage shapes that are determined by experience. Therefore, the effect of the internal flow passage shapes on the performance and internal flow characteristics of a Francis hydro turbine model is investigated in this study. In this study, the small curvature of runner blade trailing edge shape is good for improving the efficiency of Francis turbine. The straight stay vane leading edge is good for suppressing the secondary flow. Moreover, suitable tongue passage shape and stay vane number improve the performance of the turbine considerably.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.206.1-206.1
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• 2011

Recently, various developments in the area of small hydropower have being made and small hydro turbines are suitable for domestic use because it is a clean and renewable energy source. A small hydropower generator produces power by using the different water pressure levels in pipe lines and energy which was initially wasted by use of a reducing valve at the end of the pipeline is instead collected by a tubular-type hydro turbine in the generator. In this study, in order to acquire the performance of tubular-type hydro turbine applied, the output power, head, efficiency characteristics due to the different guide vane and runner vane angle are examined in detail. Moreover, influences of pressure and velocity distributions with the variation of guide vane and runner vane angle on turbine performance are investigated by using a commercial CFD code.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.04a
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• pp.302-305
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• 2009

The Francis type hydro turbine with vertical axis has been designed and analized for hydraulic performance verification. The guide vane angle of turbine casing were designed to be varied according to the condition of head and flowrate. When the changes in flowrate and output were comparatively large, the efficiency drop were small, so the efficiency characteristics and stability of the entire operating condition were maintained in good condition. These results showed that the developed hydro turbine in this study will be suitable for small hydro power stations with medium and high head such as agricultural reservoirs and large dam.

• 한국태양에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.11a
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• pp.167-171
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• 2008

The Francis type hydro turbine with vertical axis has been designed and analized for hydraulic performance verification. The guide vane angle of turbine casing were designed to be varied according to the condition of head and flowrate. When the changes in flowrate and output were comparatively large, the efficiency drop were small, so the efficiency characteristics and stability of the entire operating condition were maintained in good condition. These results showed that the developed hydro turbine in this study will be suitable for small hydro power stations with medium and high head such as agricultural reservoirs and large dam.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.11-17
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• 2013

This study is aimed to construct a marine small hydro power plant using discharge water of fish farm in Jeju Haengwon-ri. The difference of design methods between marine small hydro power plant and land small hydro power plant is to consider the tides. Moreover, ground condition should be examined because gushout sea water comes out from the ground at high tide in Jeju as the ground of Jeju beach consists of basalt stone. From the field test of the turbine generator after construction of the power plant, output power and efficiency of the turbine generator shows good conformance to the required conditions.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.5-13
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• 2015

The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of a new type of casing for the inline Francis hydro turbine. Comparing with the traditional turbine with spiral casing, this turbine is unique for its flow passage shape at the first stage of flow to the turbine, very similar to a pipe, called inline casing. Before the commercialization of this new type of casing, a global investigation of the inline casing must be conducted. Preserving the structural characteristics of simple, compact-size and convenient for manufacture, different shapes of the belt passage, vertical corner and stay vanes are applied to investigate the influence of flow passage shape on the turbine performance. Stable and relatively high efficiency is achieved regardless of flow passage shape difference proving the feasibility of the inline casing used in a hydro turbine.