Hydrocoil Turbine Performance at 3 m, 4 m, and 5 m Head Analysis Using Computational Fluid Dynamics Method

Alief Avicenna Luthfie,

Swandya Eka Pratiwi,

Poempida Hidayatulloh

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Mercu Buana, 11650 Jakarta, Indonesia

e-mail: alief.avicenna@mercubuana.ac.id; swandya20@yahoo.com; poempida@gmail.com

Abstract.

Indonesia is a country which has abundant renewable energy resources, comprises of water, solar, geothermal, wind, bioenergy, and ocean energy. Utilization of water energy through MHP is widely applied in remote areas in Indonesia. This utilization requires a water-converting device known as a water turbine. Rosefsky (2010) developed a water turbine known as the Hydrocoil turbine. This turbine is an axial turbine which is a modification of a threaded turbine. This turbine has a pitch length that decreases in the direction of the water flow and is able to work at relatively low water flow and head. The use of Hydrocoil turbine has not been widely applied in Indonesia, therefore this research is focused on analyzing the performance of Hydrocoil turbines. The analysis was performed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method. Hydrocoil turbine performance analysis was performed at 3 m, 4 m, and 5 m head respectively as well as rotation speed variations of 100 rpm, 300 rpm, 500 rpm, 700 rpm, 900 rpm, 1,100 rpm, 1,300 rpm, 1,500 rpm, 1,700 rpm, and 1,900 rpm. Based on simulation results, the largest power produced by the turbine at 3 m head is 1,134.06 W, while at 4 m and 5 m are 1,722.39 W and 2,231.49 W respectively. It is also found that the largest turbine efficiency at 3 m head is 93.22% while at 4 m and 5 m head are 94.6% and 89.88% respectively. The result also shows that the larger the head the operational rotational speed range will also be greater.