Study on Flow Velocity Control of a Multiple Hydrofoil Duct via Flow Visualization Techniques

Abstract

In this work, we investigate the flow velocity controllability of a diffuser-type multiple hydrofoil duct by experimental and numerical flow visualization approaches. The flow velocity controllability is analyzed by changing the angle of the hydrofoil near the outlet, which is the diffuser, while the incoming flow velocity is 0.6 m/s in the experiment. When the diffuser angle is changed from 0 to 7.5 degree, the maximum velocity inside the duct is varied from 1.35 m/s to 1.52 m/s. Also, it is shown from the numerical analysis that the maximum velocity is varied from 1.09 m/s to 1.17 m/s in the same condition. Thus, the aspect of the acceleration in the duct due to the increase of the diffuser angle is similar between the both approaches. Therefore, the multiple hydrofoil duct can be used to control the flow speed inside the duct for continuously extracting power close to a rated capacity.