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Energy
EnergyProcedia
Procedia138 (2017) 000–000
00 (2017) 646–650
www.elsevier.com/locate/procedia

2017 International Conference on Alternative Energy in Developing Countries and Emerging Economies
2017 AEDCEE, 25‐26 May 2017, Bangkok, Thailand

The 15thStudy
Comparative International Symposium
of Small on District Heating
Hydropower Turbineand Cooling
Efficiency
at LowofHead
Assessing the feasibility usingWater
the heat demand-outdoor
temperature function for a long-term
Piyawat Sritram district
and Ratchaphon heat *demand forecast
Suntivarakorn

Andrićofa,b,c
I.Department *, A. Pinaa, P. Faculty
Mechanical Engineering, a
of Engineering,
Ferrão b University, Khon Kaen,
., B. Lacarrièrec, 40002,
Khon Kaen
, J. Fournier Correc
O. LeThailand.
a
IN+ Center for Innovation, Technology and Policy Research - Instituto Superior Técnico, Av. Rovisco Pais 1, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
Abstract b
Veolia Recherche & Innovation, 291 Avenue Dreyfous Daniel, 78520 Limay, France
c
Département Systèmes Énergétiques et Environnement - IMT Atlantique, 4 rue Alfred Kastler, 44300 Nantes, France

The purpose of this research was to study and compare a small hydropower turbine efficiency at low head water by making a
comparison between the Water Free Vortex Turbine and the Small Under Shot Water Wheel. The experiment and analyze were
Abstract
carried out to find the torque and energy of the turbine, as well as the overall efficiency of both types of turbines at the flow rate
of 0-950 l/min and at the head water of 0-0.5 m. From the experiment, it was found that at a flow rate of 950 l/mim, the highest
amount
Districtofheating
generated energyare
networks of commonly
the Small Under ShotinWater
addressed Wheel, was
the literature at 7.51
as one of theW,most
the torque wassolutions
effective 4.78 N-mforand the highest
decreasing the
efficiency
greenhouse was gas13.96 % at the
emissions fromrotational speedsector.
the building of 15 rpm.
TheseAssystems
for the require
Water Free
highVortex Turbine,
investments the highest
which amount
are returned of generated
through the heat
energy was 14.5
sales. Due to theW,changed
the torque was conditions
climate 2.77 N-m and and building
the highest efficiency
renovation was 35.92
policies, heat % at the in
demand rotational speed
the future couldof decrease,
50 rpm.
Furthermore,
prolonging the theinvestment
torque of return
the Small Under Shot Water Wheel was higher than the Water Free Vortex Turbine, but the cycle
period.
speed and the
The main energy
scope generated
of this paper isby to the Water
assess the Free VortexofTurbine
feasibility using thewas higher.
heat demandTherefore, it can
– outdoor be concluded
temperature that for
function theheat
Water Free
demand
Vortex Turbine
forecast. is more of
The district suitable as a small
Alvalade, locatedhydropower
in Lisbonelectricity
(Portugal),generator
was usedthanasthe Smallstudy.
a case UnderTheShotdistrict
Water Wheel at the height
is consisted of 665
ofbuildings
the head that
water lessinthan
vary oneconstruction
both meter. period and typology. Three weather scenarios (low, medium, high) and three district
renovation scenarios were developed (shallow, intermediate, deep). To estimate the error, obtained heat demand values were
© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
©compared
2017 Thewith
Peer-review
resultsPublished
Authors.
under
from a dynamic
responsibilityby
heat Ltd.
of Elsevier
demand model, previously developed and validated by the authors.
the scientific committee of the 2017 International Conference on Alternative Energy in
The resultsCountries
Peer-review
­D eveloping showed
under that
andwhen
responsibility
Emergingonly
of theweather change
Organizing
Economies. is considered,
Committee the AEDCEE.
of 2017 margin of error could be acceptable for some applications
(the error in annual demand was lower than 20% for all weather scenarios considered). However, after introducing renovation
scenarios,hydro
Keywords: the error value
turbine; smallincreased
under shotup to 59.5%
water (depending
wheel; water on the weather and renovation scenarios combination considered).
free vortex
The value of slope coefficient increased on average within the range of 3.8% up to 8% per decade, that corresponds to the
decrease in the number of heating hours of 22-139h during the heating season (depending on the combination of weather and
renovation scenarios considered). On the other hand, function intercept increased for 7.8-12.7% per decade (depending on the
coupled scenarios). The values suggested could be used to modify the function parameters for the scenarios considered, and
improve the accuracy of heat demand estimations.

© 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +66 (0) 4320 2845
Cooling.
E-mail address: ratchaphon@kku.ac.th
Keywords: Heat demand; Forecast; Climate change
1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of the Organizing Committee of 2017 AEDCEE.

1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Committee of The 15th International Symposium on District Heating and Cooling.
1876-6102 © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 2017 International Conference on Alternative Energy in
­Developing Countries and Emerging Economies.
10.1016/j.egypro.2017.10.181
 Piyawat Sritram et al. / Energy Procedia 138 (2017) 646–650 647
2 Piyawat sritram and Ratchaphon Suntivarakorn / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000

1. Introduction

Currently the generation of electricity in the low head water sources has been based conventionally on different
forms of generating turbines which include: horizontal spiral turbine, small under shot water wheel, Kaplan hydro
turbine and gravitational vortex power plant. Electricity generation in the low head water sources is appropriate for
application in remote areas which the expansion of the distribution system is not possible. The method is also
applicable for electricity generation in areas with continuous flow of water all the year round [1 ]. The small under
shot water wheel, a traditional yet currently practical method of electricity generation, utilizes the stream flow of
water directly onto the turbine with the water flowing along the stream without having to block its flow. [ 2]
Moreover, this small under shot water wheel can be conveniently used on highland with ease of transportation,
maintenance, and fix. The average efficiency of this water turbine is observed at 35-40 % [3,4]. As a more recently
developed generator, the water free vortex turbine is found to possess laboratorial efficiency at around 30-40% when
the head water is lower than 1 meter [ 5-7] . It is obvious that selecting a correct type of turbine during electricity
generation process can result in the optimal use of limited water resources. Despite the fact that several types of
water turbines are available for electricity generating in low head water setting, the potential diversity in electricity
production among these existing turbines had never been investigated. Accordingly, it was proposed in this research
that the electricity generating capacities of the traditional turbine, small under shot water wheel, and its more
modern and widely used counterpart, water free vortex turbine, should be investigated. In order to obtain
comprehensive data about the capacity difference of the two turbines, information relating to their efficiency, torque
of the turbine, hydraulic power into the turbine, power output from the turbine and rotational speed were
investigated.

2. Experimental Instruments and Methodology

2.1. Experimental Instruments

This research involved a laboratory investigation of electricity generation in a free vortex water system setting as
shown in Figure 1. The experiment tools comprised a water tank, pump and two types of turbines namely: water free
vortex turbine and small under shot water wheel. Both were installed in the drainage water trough of the size
0.25×3.0×0.5 meter. The height of the water trough was adjustable within 0 to 0.5 meter. The water was discharged
from the water tank at the pumping rate of between 0-1,000 liters per minute. During the experiment, different kinds
of turbines could be used for testing. However, five blades of water free vortex turbine of the size 0.16×0.13 meter
were installed in the free vortex pool with a diameter of 0.5 meter, a height of 0.5 meter and its water exit diameter
of 0.1 meter. The small under shot water wheel was installed with 12 blades of 0.6 meter diameter and 0.2 meter
wide.

2.2. Experimental Methodology

During the experiment, water was fed into the generating system at the flow rate of 0-950 liters per minute. At
each changing flow rate of the water, the maximum revolution of the turbine was measured under the no-load
condition. Next, the maximum revolution parameter of the water turbine was obtained, the load was increased to the
prony brake dynamometer and the revolution of the turbine was reduced by adjusting the tension of spring balances
of the prony brake attached to the turbine shaft. Starting from the highest revolution, the rotational speed was
lowered every 5 rpm, until the shaft stopped rotating. The torque resulting from reduction of revolution could be
calculated from relation obtained from measuring the outcome force exerted on the mechanical dynamometer and
the length of the mechanical dynamometer diameter. The turbine revolution speed was measured using a portable
tachometer and the water flow rate was measured by the ultrasonic flow meter. The height of flowing water in the
chute was measured, and the various parameters were recorded. Experiments were repeated with the change of flow
rates. Then the height of pool was increased to 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5 meter and all parameters were again
recorded and then experiments were repeated, respectively. The parameters were taken to calculate the torque to the
turbine, power output from the turbine, hydraulic power into the turbine and efficiency of the turbine. The results of
648 Piyawat Sritram et al. / Energy Procedia 138 (2017) 646–650
Piyawat sritram and Ratchaphon Suntivarakorn / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000 3

the two types of turbines were then compared to determine the efficiency for consideration and selection of the
suitable type for electricity generation at low head water.

Fig. 1. Diagram of free water vortex system and small under shot water wheel system

3. Turbine efficiency

Gauging the torques of the two water turbines was achieved from applying the principle of prony brake absorption
dynamometer [9-10]. The prony brake torque gauging unit was attached to the shaft of the water turbine. When the
turbine spun, torque was generated and hence tensile force occurred in the direction of torque (T) and weigh (W).
The torque which the turbine shaft exerted on prony brake could be calculated from the following equation [7,11]:

T = WL (1)

Where L is length. Besides, power output from the turbine (Po) could be calculated by:

2πTN
Po = (2)
60

The hydraulic power into the turbine (Pi) was calculated by using the equation:

Pi = gQH (3)

Where g is acceleration rate which was set at 9.81 m2/s, based on the gravity force, Q is the flow rate (m3/min),
N is rotational speed (rpm), H is water head (m). The efficiency of the turbine could be calculated from the ratio of
the force generated by the turbine to the water flow rate; the efficiency of the turbine ( ) could be calculated from
the equation:

Po
η = × 100 (4)
Pi
 Piyawat Sritram et al. / Energy Procedia 138 (2017) 646–650 649
4 Piyawat sritram and Ratchaphon Suntivarakorn / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000

4. Results and Discussion

4.1. Rotational speed of the turbines

Figure 2 shows the graphs plotted from the experiment to find the rotational speed of both power generation
systems. At the water head height between 0.1-0.5 meter the water free vortex turbine was found to have higher
rotational speed than that of the small under shot water wheel at all rates of water flows. The turbine of the water
free vortex turbine was observed with the highest rotational speed of 96 rpm at the water flow rate of 950 liters per
minute. The rotational speed of the small under shot water wheel was 75 rpm. It can be seen that with the equal flow
rate the water free vortex turbine had a higher rotational speed than that of the small under shot water wheel.

Fig. 2. Turbine revolution Fig. 3. Turbine torque when Q = 950 l/min

4.2. Torques of the turbine

Figure 3 shows the turbines’ torques which varied inversely with rotational speed. At the flow rate of 950 liters
per minute at the beginning, the small under shot water wheel demonstrated a higher torque than the turbine of the
water free vortex turbine. Thus, the water free vortex turbine required lower initial torque than its counterpart.

Fig. 4. Maximum power at H = 0.1-0.5 meter Fig. 5. Turbine efficiency when Q = 950 l/min

4.3. Power output and Efficiency

Figure 4 compares the maximum power obtained from both types of turbines at the height range of 0.1-0.5 meter
and water flow rate of 950 liters per minute. The maximum power observed in the small under shot water wheel was
7.51 watts while the power of 14.5 watts was observed in the water free vortex turbine. It can be seen that the
highest power of the two turbines increased with the increased flow rates. Moreover, the power from the water free
vortex turbine was higher than the power produced by the small under shot water wheel at the same water flow rate
and all flow rates. Figure 5 shows the efficiency of the maximum power generated under the flow rate of 950 liters
650 Piyawat Sritram et al. / Energy Procedia 138 (2017) 646–650
Piyawat sritram and Ratchaphon Suntivarakorn / Energy Procedia 00 (2017) 000–000 5

per minute. The water free vortex turbine demonstrated 35.92 % efficiency at the rotational speed of 50 rpm. The
small under shot water wheel demonstrated the efficiency of 13.96 % at 15 rpm. It is enough to conclude that the
power generating efficiency of the water free vortex turbine was higher than the efficiency of the small under shot
water wheel.

5. Conclusion

The comparison of the efficiency of the two types of electricity generators leads to the following conclusions.
With regard to the head water, in the water free vortex turbine, the height of head water varied in accordance with
the rotational speed and inversely with the increasing torque. The small under shot water wheel did not demonstrate
any change in the height of head water at the equal water flow rate. The rotational speed in the water free vortex
turbine was height because the free vortex in the pool of the water free vortex turbine can accelerate the speed of
water. The power and the efficiency measured in the water free vortex turbine were higher than in the small under
shot water wheel. The turbine of the water free vortex turbine yielded the highest power of 14.5 watts with the
turbine efficiency of 35.92%, whereas the turbine of the small under shot water wheel yielded the maximum power
of 7.51 watts and turbine efficiency of 13.96%. This leads to the conclusion that at the head water of 0.5 meter and
the flow rate of 950 liters per minute, the water free vortex turbine is more appropriate for use than the small under
shot water wheel.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Energy Conservation Promotion Fund, Energy Policy and Planning, Ministry
of Energy for its financial support, and the Farm Engineering and Automation Technology Research Group,
Khon Kaen University, Thailand for supporting the tools and equipment in this research.

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