Abstract
The rate of electrification in rural areas in Zambia is very low, currently standing at less than 5% despite having abundant flowing water resources. Hydrokinetic technology is an alternative among other promising technologies for rural area electrification because of availability of abundant flowing Rivers and low population in rural settlement. In this paper, the author designed and numerically simulated a circular arc blade hydrokinetic turbine system. The design power for the horizontal axis hydrokinetic turbine was 3 kW at water velocity of 3 m/s with the tip speed ratio of 2.5, angle of attack of 10 degrees and power coefficient of 0.4. In this work, a numerical simulation was employed to characterize and develop the horizontal axis hydrokinetic turbine. The prototype circular arc blade horizontal axis hydrokinetic turbine was tested in one of stream in Zambia and the results were compared with the numerical simulation results.
Highlights
The major source of energy for Zambia includes electricity, petroleum, coal, biomass, and renewable energy
The prototype circular arc blade horizontal axis hydrokinetic turbine was tested in one of stream in Zambia and the results were compared with the numerical simulation results
This paper focuses on the description of the steps involved in the design and numerical simulation of a small horizontal axis hydrokinetic turbine, comparing the result to a prototype turbine which was tested in one of the Zambian Rivers as the method for generating electrical power for off-grid rural communities in developing countries
Summary
The major source of energy for Zambia includes electricity, petroleum, coal, biomass, and renewable energy. The demand for the most important energy source in the country-electricity has been growing at an average of about 3 percent per annum mainly due to the increased economic activity in the country especially in the agriculture, manufacturing and mining sectors, as well as increased activity in the region” [1]. The growing economy of the country has caused an increase in the demand for the other forms of energy resources such as coal and petroleum, as these have got major impact production and operations in most economic sectors. The energy market has seen significant growth in the demand for renewable energies as an alternative source of energy, and this has proved that renewable energies are the alternative source in that it is environmental friendly [1]
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