Author(s): Vincenzo Sammartano; Gabriele Morreale; Marco Sinagra; Tullio Tucciarelli

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Keywords: Cross-flow turbine; experimental facility; hydraulic machinery design; hydraulic model; hydraulics of renewable energy systems; RANS model

Abstract: A numerical and experimental study was carried out for validation of a previously proposed design criterion for a cross-flow turbine and a new semi-empirical formula linking inlet velocity to inlet pressure. An experimental test stand was designed to conduct a series of experiments and to measure the efficiency of the turbine designed based on the proposed criterion. The experimental efficiency was compared to that from numerical simulations performed using a RANS model with a shear stress transport (SST) turbulence closure. The proposed semi-empirical velocity formula was also validated against the numerical solutions for cross-flow turbines with different geometries and boundary conditions. The results confirmed the previous hydrodynamic analysis and thus can be employed in the design of the cross-flow turbines as well as for reducing the number of simulations needed to optimize the turbine geometry.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00221686.2016.1147500

Year: 2016