PhD Candidate
Oblique Shrestha (oblique.shrestha@ku.edu.np)
Supervisors / Advisors
Prof. Bhola Thapa
Prof. Hari Prasad Neopane
Prof. Young-Ho Lee
Objectives
1. To design the sediment resistive CFT blade.
2. To design CFT erosion tester, install and test the optimized blades to validate the simulation results.
Summary
This research work focuses on developing better sediment handling CFT. It includes design, simulation and testing of the turbine to address the local sediment problem. The simulation works consist of locating erosion on turbine blades, modify the blade profiles and efficiency measurement of modified CFT. The design work includes the design of the experimental setup and design of sediment resistive CFT. Finally, the experiment comprises verifying results of the modified blade profile and to validate the simulation results.
The design of the CFT is performed considering the hydraulic requirements of the CFT and considering the lab facilities. The head and flow of the turbine are 25 m and 45 l/s respectively with an RPM of 634. The computational domains are created using AUTOCAD and CATIA. A hexagonal mesh of each domain is generated using ANSYS ICEM CFD. For 3D CFD simulation, a commercial software ANSYS CFX is used. The grid-independent test is performed successfully to ensure the validity and reliability of mesh quality and simulation itself.
Several profiles of the blade are being generated and simulations are being performed. Once the simulation is completed, several numbers of blade profile will be selected which is based on resistive nature of blade against sediment erosion and also considering the efficiency of the turbine. From the result of the simulation, selected optimized runners will be fabricated.
In parallel, the design and 3D modelling of the experimental setup are already completed. All the components of the erosion tester are being fabricated and purchased except the CFT set.
The outcomes from this research will be utilized in the field of Micro Hydropower plants where CFT is selected. It will serve to minimize the effect of the sediment erosion reducing the downtime and outages of the plant due to erosion.