An experimental investigation of design parameters for pico-hydro Turgo turbines using a response surface methodology

Abstract

a b s t r a c tMillions of off-grid homes in remote areas around the world have access to pico-hydro (5 kW or less) resources that are undeveloped due to prohibitive installed costs ($/kW). The Turgo turbine, a hydroelectric impulse turbine generally suited for medium to high head applications, has gained renewed attention in research due to its potential applicability to such sites. Nevertheless, published literature about the Turgo turbine is limited and indicates that current theory and experimental knowledge do not adequately explain the effects of certain design parameters, such as nozzle diameter, jet inlet angle, number of blades, and blade speed on the turbine's efficiency. In this study, these parameters are used in a three-level (3 4 ) central composite response surface experiment. A low-cost Turgo turbine is built and tested from readily available materials and a second order regression model is developed to predict its efficiency as a function of each parameter above and their interactions. The effects of blade orientation angle and jet impact location on efficiency are also investigated and experimentally found to be of relatively little significance to the turbine. The purpose of this study is to establish empirical design guidelines that enable small hydroelectric manufacturers and individuals to design low-cost efficient Turgo Turbines that can be optimized to a specific pico-hydro site. The results are also expressed in dimensionless parameters to allow for potential scaling to larger systems and manufacturers.

Feasibility Analysis of a Pico-Scale Turgo Turbine Bucket using Coconut Shell Spoons for Electricity Generation in Remote Areas in Indonesia

“…This study is a follow-up study conducted by Budiarso et al, [16], and it verifies the study conducted by Gaiser et al, [23]. The Turgo turbine designed by Budiarso et al, [16] exhibits a hydraulic efficiency of 44.3% and an investment cost of USD 48.…”

“…Eq. 7 is utilized to determine the values for each spoon model, where 1 is varied from 10° to 40° [28], is set at 0.97, is set at 0.92 [24], and the optimum value depends on the 1 value (See Table 3 for more details) [28]. Table 4 summarizes the results obtained from the calculations using Eq.…”

“…The Turgo turbine designed by Budiarso et al, [16] exhibits a hydraulic efficiency of 44.3% and an investment cost of USD 48. On the other hand, the turbine designed by Gaiser et al, [23] exhibits a hydraulic efficiency of 63.4% and an investment cost only of USD 30. However, the reliability of the Turgo turbines designed by Budiarso et al, [16] and Geiser et al, [23] for applications is still doubtful because the reported efficiency is the hydraulic efficiency and not the total efficiency (electrical power).…”

“…The use of materials that are widely available in the market as raw materials for the Turgo turbine buckets has been carried out. For example, stainless-steel spoon materials have been used for making Turgo turbine buckets due to their cost-effective [16,23]. Such examples provide new ideas from local Indonesia people for the application of pico hydro.…”

Estimation of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Mitigation Methods in Electrical Power Sector of Dire Dawa City from 2015 to 2025

“…Using power law the wind speed at a certain height above ground level can be given as follows [3,11,13]:…”