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

传统水力发电站的设计和开发是为了在潜力较大的地区(如高坝)运行并产生大量电力。然而，电力需求适中的偏远社区可以受益于规模较小、易于安装的设施，这些设施旨在通过小水坝在河流和小溪中运行。这类水轮机设施的运行超出了传统大型设施的优化范围，因此，需要专门考虑这些较小的规模进行(重新)设计。Galt Green Energy在小型水轮机设施领域已有20多年的历史，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，以减少他们的产品对小河流和小溪的环境影响。到目前为止，他们的设计方法依赖于直觉和经验，因为他们从传统的水轮机转子设计过渡到他们新的“环保”概念。尽管取得了成功，但由于缺乏涡轮机规模的数据，再加上新转子设计相对未被探索的性质，转子设计和涡轮机框架的优化一直受到阻碍。该项目旨在彻底检查其具有新型转子设计的小型水轮机设施的流动特性，以便为未来的产品迭代制定设计和优化指南。研究目标将通过混合使用实验和数值工具来实现。这项研究将使需要低成本、低环境影响的可再生能源的加拿大公司受益，特别是那些偏远地区的公司。

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.