Developing design guidelines to optimize vaneless inlets and "fish-friendly" rotors for low-flow water turbines installations on small rivers

传统的水力发电厂被设计和开发为在具有高势能的区域（例如，高大的水坝），并产生大量的电力。然而，电力需求不高的偏远社区可以从规模较小、易于安装的设施中受益，这些设施旨在通过小型水坝在河流和小溪中运行。这样的水轮机涡轮机设施在传统的较大规模设施的优化范围之外操作，因此，需要考虑到这些较小规模而专门（重新）设计。 高尔特绿色能源公司从事小型水涡轮机设施业务已有20多年，最近开始开发“鱼类友好型”转子和具有生态意识的小型设施，以减少其产品对小型河流和小溪的环境影响。迄今为止，他们的设计方法依赖于直觉和经验，因为他们从传统的水涡轮机转子设计过渡到他们的新的“环保”概念。虽然成功，但由于缺乏涡轮机规模的可用数据，再加上其新转子设计的相对未开发性质，转子设计和涡轮机框架的优化受到阻碍。该项目旨在彻底检查其小型水涡轮机设施的流动特性，采用新型转子设计，以便为未来的产品迭代开发设计和优化指南。研究目标将使用实验和数值工具的混合来完成。这项研究将有利于加拿大公司，特别是那些在偏远地区，需要低成本，低环境影响的可再生能源。

Traditional hydroelectric power plants are designed and developed to operate in regions with high potential energy (e.g., tall dams) and generate large amounts of power. Remote communities with modest power needs, however, can benefit from smaller scale, easy to install facilities designed to operate in rivers and creeks with small dams. Such water turbine facilities operate outside of the optimized range of traditional larger scale facilities, and as such, need to be (re)designed specifically with these smaller scales in mind. Galt Green Energy has been in the small water turbine facility business for 20+ years and have recently started developing "fish-friendly" rotors and ecologically-minded small scale facilities in order to reduce the environmental impact their product has in small rivers and creeks. To date, their design methodology has relied on intuition and experience as they transition from traditional water turbine rotor designs to their new "eco-friendly" concept. Though successful, optimization of the rotor design and turbine framework have been hampered by the lack of availability of data at the scale of their turbines, compounded with the relatively unexplored nature of their new rotor design. This project aims to thoroughly examine the flow characteristics of their small-scale water turbine facility with the novel rotor design in order to develop design and optimization guidelines for future product iterations. The research goals will be accomplished using a blend of experimental and numerical tools. This research will benefit Canadian companies, particularly those in remote locations, in need of low-cost, low environmental impact renewable energy.