2D CFD analysis and experimental analysis on the effect of hub to tip ratios on the performance of 0.6 m impulse turbine

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to present the performance comparison of 2D Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis with experimental analysis of 0.6 m impulse turbine with fixed guide vanes for both 0.6 and 0.7 hub to tip ratio (H/T). Also the comparison of 2D CFD analysis of the said turbine with different values of H/T ranging from 0.5 to 0.7. A 2D-cascade model was used for CFD analysis while uni-directional steady flow was used for experimental analysis. The blade and guide vane geometries are based on 0.6 m rotor diameter, with optimum profile, and different H/T of 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7. It was concluded from 2D CFD analysis that 0.5 H/T ratio performances was higher than that of 0.6 and 0.7 H/T at peak efficiency and the operational flow range for 0.5 H/T was found to be wider than that of 0.6 and 0.7 H/T ratio.