Design, Modeling, and CFD Analysis of a Micro Hydro Pelton Turbine Runner: For the Case of Selected Site in Ethiopia

Abstract EN

This paper addresses the design, modeling, and performance analysis of a Pelton turbine using CFD for one of the selected micro hydro potential sites in Ethiopia to meet the requirements of the energy demands.

The site has a net head of 47.5 m and flow rate of 0.14 m3/s.

The design process starts with the design of initial dimensions for the runner based on different literatures and directed towards the modeling of bucket using CATIA V5.

The performance of the runner has been analyzed in ANSYS CFX (CFD) under given loading conditions of the turbine.

Consequently, the present study has also the ambition to reduce the size of the runner to have a cost effective runner design.

The case study described in this paper provides an example of how the size of turbine can affect the efficiency of the turbine.

These were discussed in detail which helps in understanding of the underlying fluid dynamic design problem as an aid for improving the efficiency and lowering the manufacturing cost for future study.

The result showed that the model is highly dependent on the size and this was verified and discussed properly using flow visualization of the computed flow field and published result.