• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.284-290
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• 2006

For the case of high head and critical low flow rate range of micro hydropower resources, it requires very low specific speed turbines which are lower than conventional impulse turbine's specific speed. In order to satisfy the request for very low specific speed turbine with high efficiency, a new positive displacement turbine is developed. The performance characteristics of the new turbine is tested and compared with a conventional impulse turbine, which is used for automatic water faucet system. The purpose of present study is to develop an high performance turbine that can be used to extract micro hydropower potential of a water supply system. The test results show that the positive displacement turbine is much more efficient than the conventional turbine and it can sustain high efficiency under the wide range of operating conditions. The pressure pulsations at the inlet and outlet of the positive displacement turbine can be considerably minimized by using simple pressure damper.

• International Journal of Advanced Culture Technology
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.101-112
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• 2015

Renewable energy resources play an important part in the world's future. Renewable energy sources have the following components: biomass, geothermal, solar thermal, directs solar, wind, tidal and hydropower. Hydropower is still the most efficient way to generate electricity worldwide. Hydropower projects can contribute as a cheap energy source, as well to encourage the development of small industries across a wide range of new technology; furthermore hydropower systems use the energy in flowing and falling water to produce electricity or mechanical energy. Hydropower systems are classified as large, medium, small, mini and micro according to their installed power generation capacity, as do the following components: water turbines, control mechanisms and electrical transmissions. In this article a review of small hydropower systems has been done on the principles surrounding the fundamentals of hydraulic engineering, the fundamentals of hydrology, identification of sites and economic analysis.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.9 no.3 s.36
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• pp.36-43
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• 2006

Recently, micro hydropower and it's useful utilization are taking a growing interest as a countermeasure of global worming by carbon dioxide and exhaustion of fossil fuel. The purpose of this study is to investigate the possibility of extracting micro hydropower wasted by a valve in water supply system using micro cross-flow hydraulic turbine. In order to fulfill the functions of controlling flow rate and pressure in substitute for the valve, air and water are supplied into an air suction hole which is installed on the side wall of micro cross-flow hydraulic turbine. The results show that in case of supplying a lot of air into the air suction hole, about 50% of flow rate and relatively high value of loss coefficient are controlled by the turbine. Moreover, including high possibility of applying the micro cross-flow turbine to water supply system, extended application of the turbine to the water discharge system of drainage and irrigation canal.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.606-609
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• 2009

Development of renewable energy is very important because of environmental problems caused by greenhouse effect. This is due to the use of fossil fuels which has serious consequences. Therefore, development of small hydropower can be a good countermeasure for the problems. The small hydropower is clean energy because the small hydropower generates few $CO_2$. Moreover, as the energy density by the small hydropower is high, it is economical for a society which wants to introduce the system. The purpose of this study is to improve the turbine performance. This study is about tubular-type hydro turbine among renewable energy that is based using the different water pressure level in pipe lines. The analysis was performed using the commercial CFD code ANSYS-CFX.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.59 no.3
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• pp.183-191
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• 2022

A design method for a propeller type rim-driven axial-flow turbine for a micro-hydropower system is presented. The turbine consists of pre-stator, impeller and post-stator, where the pre-stator plays a role as a guide vane to provide circumferential velocity to the on-coming flow, and the impeller as a rotational power generator by absorbing angular momentum of the flow. BEM(Blade Element Method), which is based on the turbine Euler equation, is employed to design the pre-stator and impeller blades. NACA 66 thickness form and a=0.8 mean camber line, which is widely accepted as a marine propeller blade section, is used for the pre-stator and turbine blade section. A CFD method, derived from the discretization of the RANS equations, is applied for the analysis of the designed turbine system. The design conditions of the turbine is confirmed by the CFD calculation. Turbine characteristic curve is calculated by the CFD method, in order to provide the performance characteristics at off-design operation conditions. The proposed procedures for the design of a propeller type rim-driven axial-flow turbine are established and confirmed by the CFD analysis.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.363-370
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• 2013

Small scale hydropower is one of most attractive and cost-effective energy technologies for installation within sewage treatment plants. This study was conducted to evaluate the potential of a semi-kaplan micro-hydropower (MHP) system for application to sewage treatment plants with high flow fluctuations and a low head. The semi-kaplan MHP is equipped with an adjustable runner blade, and is without a guide vane, so as to reduce the incidence of mechanical problems. A MHP rating 13.4 kWp with a semi-kaplan turbine has been considered for Kiheung Respia sewage treatment plant, and this installation is estimated to generate 86.8 MWh of electricity annually, which is enough to supply electricity to over 25 households, and equivalent to an annual reduction of 49 ton $CO_2$. The semi-kaplan turbine showed a 90.2% energy conversion efficiency at the design flow rate of 0.35 $m^3/s$ and net head of 4.7 m, and was adaptable to a wide range of flow fluctuations. Through the MHP operation, approximately 2.1% of total electricity demand of Kiheung Respia sewage treatment plant will be achievable. Based on financial analysis, an exploiting MHP is considered economically acceptable with an internal rate of return of 6.1%, net present value of 15,539,000 Korean Won, benefit-cost ratio of 1.08, and payback year of 15.5, respectively, if initial investment cost is 200,000,000 Korean Won.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.95-104
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• 2022

Micro hydropower is a readily available renewable energy source that can be harvested utilizing hydrokinetic turbines from shallow water canals, irrigation and industrial channel flows, and run-off river stream flows. These sources generally have low head (<1 m) and low velocity which makes it difficult to harvest energy using conventional turbines. A horizontal-axis screw turbine was designed and numerically tested to extract power from such low-head water sources. The 3-bladed screw-type turbine is placed horizontally perpendicular to the incoming flow, partially submerged in a narrow water channel at no-head condition. The turbine hydraulic performances were studied using Computational Fluid Dynamics models. Turbine design parameters such as the shroud diameter, the hub-to-shroud ratios, and the submerged depths were obtained through a steady-state parametric study. The resulting turbine configuration was then tested by solving the unsteady multiphase free-surface equations mimicking an actual open channel flow scenario. The turbine performance in the shallow channel were studied for various Tip Speed Ratios (TSR). The highest power coefficient was obtained at a TSR of 0.3. The turbine was then scaled-up to test its performance on a real site condition at a head of 0.3 m. The highest power coefficient obtained was 0.18. Several losses were observed in the 3-bladed turbine design and to minimize losses, the number of blades were increased to five. The power coefficient improved by 236% for a 5-bladed screw turbine. The fluid losses were minimized by increasing the blade surface area submerged in water. The turbine performance was increased by 74.4% after dipping the turbine to a bottom wall clearance of 30 cm from 60 cm. The final output of the novel horizontal-axis screw turbine showed a 2.83 kW power output at a power coefficient of 0.63. The turbine is expected to produce 18,744 kWh/year of electricity. The design feasibility test of the turbine showed promising results to harvest energy from small hydropower sources.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 2013

Recently so much attention has been focused on renewable energy and, since its sources to exploit are already almost saturated in the country, the practical alternative to this situation could be a micro-turbine which uses the low head and low flow. From a point of view of local micro-turbine design capacity and manufacturing technology, the problems such as the accumulation of technical skills, the expansion of related industries, the national policy expansion and the turbine efficiency to improve are still vulnerable and it's true that there are also negative views about the economic feasibility, the technicity and the operation management of the micro-turbine. However, if the improvement can be done in technology of low-head double regulation micro-turbine to generate more outputs and the operation management can be reliably realized, the micro-turbine will be re-evaluated as an appliable source of renewable energy, even the output is small, and by a paradigm shift, it could realize a power generation as an economic and rational system.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.5-11
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• 2014

Squirrel cage induction motor is the main driving system of industrial field and familiar with its use in a large variety of applications. The structure and operating characteristics of induction generator is almost identical to induction motor, but the induction generator part is used restrictively from hydropower power and wind power development etc. Recently induction generator is commonly used for micro & small hydro power applications due to its simplicity, reliability, low cost and robustness. Input and output of induction motor has turned against at the induction generator operation. Rotation speed of induction generator is small faster than synchronous speed of induction motor. As output of induction machines increases with the increasement of speed, so loss is same. Actually, generator efficiency is lower than motor at this condition. If induction generator is connected with mechanical load such as increaser, total efficiency is decreased. Consequently the quality in compliance with an induction motor parameter applying like that in the generator is a possibility of having the error of some. In this paper, we analyzed that input, output, torque and efficiency of induction machine is different from each other above and below synchronous speed.