Performance analysis of Savonius Hydrokinetic Turbine in Open Channel

Abstract

The hydrokinetic turbine (HKT) can be installed at remote locations which are far from current electrical grids and has a great deal of potential
for small-scale power generation from freely flowing water. In the present investigation, performance analysis Savonius HKT (SHKT) is carried
out in a trapezoidal open channel for a canal located on Tapi River, Surat, Gujarat, India. For numerical analysis, ???? − ???? Realizable turbulence
model has been applied to the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solver with two different inlet mean flow velocities (Um) 0.4242 m/s
and 1.0606 m/s for a wide range of 0.1 to 0.9 tip speed ratio (TSR). Based on the investigation, the maximum power coefficient (CPmax) obtained
is 0.0648 and 0.0721 at 0.6 TSR for SHKT at 0.4242 m/s and 1.0606 m/s velocity, respectively. Additionally, the fluid flow visualisations
surrounding the rotors have been examined.