Development of a Design Principle through Analysis of Work Mechanism of the Low Rotating Gravitation Vortex Water-turbine

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K00643
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Design and evaluation of sustainable and environmental conscious system
• Research Institution: Toyama University of International Studies
• Principal Investigator: Uesaka Hiroyuki 富山国際大学, 現代社会学部, 教授(移行) (50329364)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 中川 慎二 富山県立大学, 工学部, 教授 (30337878)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 小水力発電 / ボルテックス水車 / 数値シミュレーション / 再生可能エネルギー / 水車効率

Outline of Final Research Achievements

It is known that the power generation turbine for slow spiral stream (low rotation vortex turbine) shows excellent characteristics in garbage tolerance and durability, less installation work and less need for fish-way. On the other hand, because the dynamic mechanism of turbine motion is not understood well, it is difficult to design a reliable device and to improve the power generation efficiency. In this research, we measured the basic performance of an experimentally manufactured low rotation vortex turbine, and improved turbine efficiency while changing water turbine blade conditions etc. based on the result of numeric simulation.
As a result, it was revealed that water turbine efficiency of about 70% can be obtained by making water turbine blades operate efficiently in the high flow velocity part near the center of the spiral, and reducing the amount of ineffective water flow at the lower part of the turbine blade and at the center of the vortex.

Free Research Field

地域エネルギー学