• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.30-39
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• 2014

The cross flow turbine is economical because of its simple structure. For remote rural region, there are needs for a more simple structure and very low head cross flow turbines. However, in this kind of locations, the water from upstream always flows into the turbine with some other materials such as sand and pebble. These materials will be damage to the runner blade and shorten the turbine lifespan. Therefore, there is a need to develop a new type of cross flow turbine for the remote rural region where there is availability of abundant resources. The new design of the cross flow turbine has an inlet open duct, without guide vane and nozzle to simplify the structure. However, the turbine with inlet open duct and very low head shows relatively low efficiency. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to optimize the shape of the turbine inlet to improve the efficiency, and investigate the internal flow of a very low head cross flow turbine. There are two steps to optimize the turbine inlet shape. Firstly, by changing the turbine open angle along with changing the turbine inlet open duct bottom line (IODBL) location to investigate the internal flow. Secondly, keeping the turbine IODBL location at the maximum efficiency achieved at the first step, and changing the turbine IODBL angle to improve the performance. The result shows that there is a 7.4% of efficiency improvement by optimizing turbine IODBL location (open angle), and there is 0.3% of efficiency improvement by optimizing the turbine IODBL angle.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.19-26
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• 2014

The cross flow turbine attracts more and more attention for its relatively wide operating range and simple structure. In this study, a novel type of micro cross flow turbine is developed for application to a step in an irrigational channel. The head of the turbine is only H=4.3m and the turbine inlet channel is open ducted type, which has barely been studied. The efficiency of the turbine with inlet open duct channel is relatively low. Therefore, a guide nozzle on the turbine inlet is attached to improve the performance of the turbine. The guide nozzle shapes are investigated to find the best shape for the turbine. The guide nozzle plays an important role on directing flow at the runner entry, and it also decreases the negative torque loss by reducing the pressure difference in Region 1. There is 12.5% of efficiency improvement by attaching a well shaped guide nozzle on the turbine inlet.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.11-19
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• 2015

Recently, the cross flow turbines attract more attention for their good performance over a large operating regime at off design point. This study employs a very low head cross flow turbine, which has open inlet duct and has barely been studied before, to investigate the performance of the cross flow turbine with air suction from the rear part of the runner. Unlike conventional cross flow turbines, a draft tube is attached to the outlet of runner to improve the turbine performance. Water level and pressure in the draft tube are monitored to investigate the influence of air suction. Torque at local blade passage of three parts of runner is examined in detail under the conditions of different air suction. Consequently, it is found that with proper air suction in the runner chamber, the water level in the draft tube gradually drops to Stage 2 of the runner and the efficiency of the turbine can be raised by 10%. Overall, the effect of air-layer on the performance of the turbine is considerable.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.67-71
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• 2014

Recently, the cross flow turbine attracts more and more attention for its good performance over a large operating regime at off design point. This study adopts a very low head cross flow turbine that has barely been studied before, and investigates the effect of air layer on the performance of the cross flow turbine. As open duct is applied in this study and free surface model is used between the air layer and water, an engineering definition of efficiency, instead of traditional definition of efficiency, is used. As torque at the runner fluctuates up and down at a reasonable limit, statistical method is used. Pressure and water volume fraction contours are shown to present the characteristics of air-water flow. With constant air suction in the runner chamber, the water level gradually drops below the runner and efficiency of the turbine can be raised by 10 percent. All considered, the effect of air layer on the performance of turbine is considerable.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.25-30
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• 2012

Renewable energy has been interested because of fluctuation of oil price, depletion of fossil fuel resources and environmental impact. Amongst renewable energy resources, hydropower is most reliable and cost effective way. In this study, to develop a new type of micro hydro turbine which can be operated in the range of very low specific speed, a cross-flow hydro turbine with simple structure is proposed. The turbine is designed to be used at the very low specific speed range of hydropower resources, such as very high-head and considerably small-flow rate water resources. CFD analysis on the performance and internal flow characteristics of the turbine is conducted to obtain a practical data for the new design method of the turbine. Results show that optimized arrangement of guide vane angle and inner guide angle can give contribution to the turbine performance improvement.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2009.07a
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• pp.1070_1071
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• 2009

Recently, small hydropower attracts attention because of its clean, renewable and abundant energy resources to develop. Therefore, a cross-flow hydraulic turbine is proposed for small hydropower development in this study. The turbine‘s simple structure and high possibility of applying to the sites of relatively low effective head and large flow rate can be advantages for the introduction of the small hydropower development. The purpose of this study is not only to investigate the effects of air layer in the turbine chamber on the performance and internal flow of the cross-flow turbine, but also to suggest a newly developed air supply method. CFD analysis for the performance and internal flow of the turbine is conducted by an unsteady state calculation using a two-phase flow model in order to embody the air layer effect on the turbine performance effectively. The result shows that air layer effect on the performance of the turbine is considerable. The air layer located in the turbine runner passage plays the role of preventing a shock loss in the runner axis and suppressing a recirculation flow in the runner. The location of air suction hole on the chamber wall is very important factor for the performance improvement. Moreover, the ratio between air from suction pipe and water from turbine inlet is also significant factor of the turbine performance.