Comparative Study on Performance of Very Low Head Axial Hydraulic Turbine Using a Single Rotor and a Contra-Rotating Rotor

Abstract

Studies conducted on axial flow hydraulic turbine by comparing the performance of turbines which use a single rotor and two rotors that rotate in opposite (contra-rotating). Both turbines are designed to generate energy utilizing a very low head water flow. Single rotor turbine consists of one row of guide vane and one row of rotor blade. Contra-rotating rotor turbine consists of one row of guide vane and two rows of rotor blade, which is the front rotor blade also serves as a guide vane for the rear rotor. Both of turbines are designed for the same flow and operating conditions. The results of numerical studies show that both of turbines can be applied with a fairly high efficiency, however the single rotor turbine is significantly higher. Especially for contra-rotating turbine, the total power that generated at the same operating conditions will increase because powers are resulted from both of rotors, but the effective head required will be significantly increase compare to the single-rotor turbine. These results may be used as a reference in the development of axial flow hydraulic turbine for very low head sites to expand the applications. Keywords: Single rotor, contra-rotating rotor, axial flow, very low head, hydraulic turbine.