The numerical simulation of the performances of water rotors used in pipelines with the water baffle plates

In this study, obtaining energy especially from large and medium sized pipelines used for drinking water, rain water, or even some used for waste water has been aimed. In line with this objective, it has been investigated how to increase the performance of the water rotors used in the pipelines in order to benefit optimally from the energy of the flowing fluid in pipe. Furthermore, in order to increase the performance of the water rotor used in pipelines, a water baffle plate has been placed in front of the water rotor. In this way, the effects of size parameters of the water rotor used in the pipeline in conjunction with the various design parameters of the water baffle plate on the power performance of rotor has been investigated. By comparing design parameters, the number of the water rotor blades has also been investigated. Optimization steps have been carried out with numerical results of the study supported by theoretical computation. For numerical optimization of the water rotor, both static and dynamic performances of rotor have been found. According to the optimization study, the maximum power performance values have been obtained from a power pipe unit which consists of a water rotor and a water baffle plate with (xg/rr = 0.1, yg/rr = 0.4, ve rr/rp = 0.4 ve α = 60°) size ratios. © 2014, The Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg