Low head simple reaction water turbine

Global warming, climate change, rising fuel prices and sustainable future environment are the main motivations behind this research project. Hydropower is a very good example of renewable energy and it is the most reliable base-load energy source. There is huge untapped technically exploitable hydro energy potential of about 14,000TWh (Taylor, 2004, Sommers, 2004) waiting to be utilised throughout the world. There are few small to medium scale low head hydro turbines commercially available, but they are very expensive for micro power generation at individual level. Therefore, there is an inherent need of a simple low cost and low head hydro turbine that can encourage use of hydropower available in abundant from creeks, small rivers, streams etc. at an individual level. The aim of the research presented in this thesis is to develop low cost and high performance simple reaction water turbine for electricity production from low head hydro sources. In this thesis, two new innovative designs of simple reaction water turbine are presented and the performance characteristics of their prototypes are investigated experimentally and graphically presented. The theoretical analysis of the simple reaction turbine presented in this thesis highlights the potentials and intrinsic characteristics of simple reaction turbine. The governing equations for ideal situation without losses and practical situation with losses are presented in this thesis. The theoretical analysis predicts the centrifugal pumping effect that allows additional mass of water to flow through the turbine as it starts to rotate faster. Further, the theoretical model for optimum turbine diameter is presented followed by the theoretical analysis of jet-interference phenomenon. This thesis explains the systematic procedure of manufacturing turbine rotors for both the innovative new designs. Rotary seal arrangements used in the testing of these turbine prototypes are presented with figures. Thesis further illustrates the experimental test rig and its instrumentation used for testing the prototypes of the new turbine designs. Experimental procedures are explained with illustrative pictures of test rig and its instrumentation. The experimental investigation presented in the thesis shows the centrifugal pumping effect through the additional flow rate measured as the turbine speed increases. The fluid frictional power loss characteristics of simple reaction turbine are experimentally estimated for stationary and rotary conditions and presented as k-factor in this thesis. The performance characteristics like turbine power output, electrical power output, turbine efficiency and overall efficiency verses rotational speed for different supply pressures (supply heads) is also presented with examples and illustrative discussion for all new turbine designs.A case study of the potential low head hydro site in Victoria, Australia is presented with detail turbine sizing and water intake system for small creek using natural stone weir. In the conclusion of this research, an optimised low cost and high performance simple reaction turbine design has been developed and presented for electricity production from low head hydro sources