Browse All Digital Items

Finite Element Analysis (FEA) can be a great tool for analyzing the structural integrity of any mechanical design. Paired with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) the forces can be evaluated on a hydro turbine allowing for such an analysis. In this case, two micro hydro turbines were analyzed, an Archimedes Screw design, in the case of an available head, and a hydrokinetic design, aiming at extracting the kinetic energy of a river.

The k-omega Shear Stress Transport turbulence model was used to determine the performance of a pair of horizontal-axis hydrokinetic turbines. By varying the separation distance perpendicular to the flow direction between these turbines and computing both power and drag coefficients, the relationship between these outputs and the separation distance as an input was discovered. This study used a rotating reference frame, steady state approximation over three separation distances and two different mesh sizes to verify mesh independence.