Design of a hydrokinetic turbine in a pipe

Hydrokinetic turbines are electromechanical devices used to convert the kinetic energy of flowing water into electricity. In the present study, a 3-bladed vertical-axis helical hydrokinetic turbine placed inside a circular pipe and analyzed under different flow conditions. The simulation was conducted with 1, 1.5 and 2 m/s flow velocities. All simulations were performed by employing ANSYS FLUENT. Moving reference frame (MRF) and k-ω turbulence models were utilized in the analyses. The results have shown that when the angular velocity of the turbine is increased, the torque, thus the power coefficient increases until it reaches the peak point, then the power coefficient begins to decrease. The highest power coefficient value was observed for the flow velocity of 2 m/s.