Optimization of Nozzle Number, Nozzle Diameter and Number of Bucket of Pelton Turbine using Computational Fluid Dynamics and Taguchi Methods

Abstract

Along with the depletion of fossil fuel reserves in Indonesia, water resources can be used as an alternative source of energy. Pelton turbines are one type of water turbine that can be used. However, Pelton turbines still have weaknesses in terms of determining the optimal number of buckets and nozzles. This study aims to optimize the experimental variations in the number of buckets (Nb), the diameter of the nozzle (Dj), and the number of nozzles (Nj) on the efficiency of the Pelton Turbine. The number of buckets was varied namely 24 and 27 pieces, nozzle diameter 5.5 mm and 7 mm, and number of nozzles using a single nozzle and double nozzle with horizontal direction. The research design began with Design of Experiment (DoE) using Taguchi method in Minitab 18.0. The next step was to calculate and then designed turbine using Autodesk Inventor 2016. The turbine design was then simulated using ANSYS Fluent 17.0 Workbench. The calculation of the largest efficiency using the number of 27 buckets double nozzle 5.5 mm producing an efficiency of 64, 69%. Based on Taguchi optimization delta result, the most influential variable on the efficiency was the nozzle diameter (M=0.1943).