Parametric Study Of Cavitation Effect On 3d Hydrokinetic Turbine Blades Using Cfd

This project’s work discusses about the parametric study of cavitation around the horizontal axis turbine blade. This work mainly focusses on the case study of cavitation and how it affects the performance of the blade in terms of lift, drag and pitching moment. Cavitation is the phenomenon where it damages the surface of turbine blade when the cavities collapse. The objectives of this work are to study the effect of Artificial Cavitation Generator (ACG) installed on turbine blade and twisting angle of turbine blade on the blade performance while observing the changes in behaviour of cavitation. The optimal design of turbine blade with ACG and twisting angle is then suggested based on the finding. The analysis is done using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation software, ANSYS FLUENT. This research focuses on 3-dimensional case study of a single blade which uses the profile NACA 4418. The modification of twist angle and also the installation of ACG were done using Computational Aided Design (CAD) software, SOLIDWORKS and Design Modular. The simulations were conducted using parameters from the literature review for validation purpose and also to compare the result of modified blade with original blade. The simulation was conducted at fluid velocity 1.9 m/s with multiphase viscous model, Re-Normalisation Group k-ɛ model, cavitation model, Schnerr-Sauer model to simulate the cavitation phenomenon. From the simulations, it was found that the twisting angle changes the lift coefficient and also drag coefficient while the installation of ACG disrupts the cyclic behaviour of cavitation phenomenon. The optimal design for the blade is with the twisting angle of 4° and also with the installation of Artificial Cavitation Generator (ACG)