Abstract—The power system using the clean decentralized
renewable horizontal axis river current turbine can be an
alternative option in delivering locally and sustainably the
energies for the communities inaccessible to the electricity
connection. One of the important aspects in the technology
design is the selection of the blade number. This aspects can
raise several consequences including the performance, the
manufacturing cost and the construction constrain. The
performance must be on the top of the priority in the technology
design as the river velocity is typically low which effortlessly
brings the technology uneconomically attractive. This study
deals with the investigation of effect of the blade number on the
performance of the horizontal axis river turbine for low speed
condition. The investigation is conducted by a parametric study
with the mathematical model of the Blade Element Momentum.
The results indicate that turbines with high blade number
deliver a better performance than those with the lower blade
number. However, the consequences will be the low rotation for
the high bladed turbines thus requiring a high gearing ratio for
the mechanical transmission. This study also discusses the
reason for the results of the investigation and presents a
recommendation for designing of the river turbine for such low
speed condition in relation to the decision of the blade number.
Index Terms—Low velocity, river turbine, blade number,
performance.
The authors are with Mechanical Engineering Department of Haluoleo
University Kendari Indonesia (e-mail: bridway@yahoo.com.au;
aditya_rchmn@yahoo.com; jennydelly@yahoo.com)
[PDF]
Cite:Ridway Balaka, Aditya Rachman, and Jenny Delly, "Blade Number Effect for A Horizontal Axis River Current Turbine at A Low Velocity Condition Utilizing A Parametric Study with Mathematical Model of Blade Element Momentum," Journal of Clean Energy Technologies vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1-5, 2014.
