2018 4th International Conference on Science and Technology (ICST), Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Blade Depth Investigation on Cross-flow Turbine

by Numerical Method
Dendy Adanta Richiditya Hindami Budiarso
Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering
Universitas Indonesia Universitas Indonesia Universitas Indonesia
Depok, Indonesia Depok, Indonesia Depok, Indonesia
dendyadanta@ymail.com rcditya@gmail.com budiarso@ui.ac.id
Warjito A.I. Siswantara
Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering
Universitas Indonesia Universitas Indonesia
Depok, Indonesia Depok, Indonesia
warjito@eng.ui.ac.id a_indra@eng.ui.ac.id

Abstract— In 2016, more than 1060 million people in the
world lived in areas that are difficult to access, causing
insufficient access to electricity. To overcome the problem, a pico
hydro cross-flow turbine is considered to be a proper solution
because it has a simple design, has few civil works, is easy to
maintain, and can operate at a medium head with high variation
of discharge. To increase the turbine’s performance, this study
aims to find the effect of blade depth on performance and to
investigate the possibility of a cross-flow turbine being a reaction
turbine. The CFD method was selected because it can represent
the flow pattern in a turbine with more detail than other methods.
The blade depth variation in this study consists of 0 mm, 3 mm, 6
mm and 9 mm, and the pressure inlet boundary conditions are
varied with heads of 2.7 m and 5 m. The model turbulence RNG
k-ɛ standard has been used to predict turbulent flow. From the
2.7 m head, the average efficiency with the ratio U/V 0.42-0.5
produced by blade depth are: 0 mm is 41.9%, 3 mm is 45.8%, 6
mm is 34.4% and 9 mm is 36.7%. Meanwhile, the variations from
the 5 m head are: 0 mm is 49.8%, 3 mm is 57.3%, 6 mm is 53.7%
and 9 mm is 49.6%. A two-factor ANOVA without replication
was performed to determine the relationship of blade depth to
performance, and the results showed there is an effect because
the F-critical was higher than F. In addition, the blade does not
entirely convert the water’s kinetic energy to power. Thus, the
reaction turbine concept cannot be used in cross-flow turbines
because there is no lift force produced by any blade in the two
conditions.
Keywords— Pico hydro, cross-flow, blade depth, CFD
I. INTRODUCTION
In 2016, more than 1060 million people in the world
lived in areas that are difficult to reach and that have lower
household incomes, causing insufficient access to electricity
[1, 2]. Pico hydro is a hydropower plant that is capable of
producing electricity under 5 kW, and it is considered
suitable to electrifying rural and off-grid areas because of its
low cost and low environmental effect [2, 3]. Compared to
diesel and gasoline generators, pico hydro is one possible
solution because it has a lower generation cost, with a
maximum cost at 0.15 US$/kWh [4]. Furthermore, pico
hydro has other advantages, such as few civil works, easy
maintenance and no alteration for downstream flow [3].
Funding provided by the Directorate of Research and Service
Community (DRPM) Universitas Indonesia with grant No.
1343/UN2.R3.1/HKP.05/2018
A pico hydro cross-flow turbine is considered suitable for
turbine selection in rural electrification. This is because a
cross-flow turbine has a simple design, stable efficiency on
various discharge conditions and good portability. In
addition, the cross-flow turbine is a turbine that operates at a
medium head and a high deviation of discharge [5].
Energy conversion in a cross-flow turbine occurs in a
first stage and a second stage. Most energy is extracted
during the first stage, when fluid first attacks the blade with a
certain angle of attack. Andrade [5] performed a
computational study that focused on energy conversion. The
study showed that energy conversion at the first stage was
68.5%, and it was 31.5% during the second stage. Shahidul
et al. [6] performed a study on the energy extraction of cross-
flow turbines. The study showed that water volume and
velocity affected energy conversion. Chichkede et al. [7]
investigated flow velocity with a CFD simulation using
different nozzle openings. The simulation showed that 70%
of energy was extracted during the first stage, and 30% was
extracted during the second stage.
The cross-flow turbine has various blade shapes. In
general, a cross-flow turbine has a sharp tip to make the fluid
easier to flow. Mockmore [8] and Sammartano [9] used a
crescent-shaped blade in their respective study on the
procedural design of a cross-flow turbine. Another study
performed a numerical method on four different blade shapes
in a cross-flow turbine [10]. The blade type consisted of a
flat-tipped blade profile, a round-tipped blade profile, a
pointed-tipped blade profile and an oval-tipped blade profile.
The results showed that a turbine with a round-tipped blade
profile yields the highest efficiency. Another recent study on
blade profile analysed the possibility of using an airfoil on a
cross-flow turbine blade [11]. The study’s results did not
recommend the airfoil blade shape because it produces lower
efficiency than a standard blade shape.
In cross-flow turbines, the momentum change is heavily
influenced by blade depth since it is an impulse turbine. This
is because the blade depth will affect the water flow inside
the impeller and the losses that occur within each blade.
However, few studies have not been investigated the effect
of blade depth on a cross-flow turbine’s performance. To
answer whether blade depth has a relationship to
performance, this study will compare different blade depths
according by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method.

978-1-5386-5813-0/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE

 2018 4th International Conference on Science and Technology (ICST), Yogyakarta, Indonesia

The CFD method was selected because it can represent a

turbine’s flow pattern in more detail than other methods [12].
Furthermore, this study will investigate the possibility of a
cross-flow turbine acting as a reaction turbine. This is
because in the pico hydro turbine scale, the water’s potential
energy is more dominant than the kinetic energy. Kaniecky
[13] performed a study that showed the power generated is
increased with a reaction turbine. Thus, this study’s expected
results can add an understanding of the energy conversion
process in a cross-flow turbine and will determine whether a
cross-flow turbine can be a reaction turbine.

II. METHODOLOGY

A. Analytical Method Fig. 1. Blade schematic

The study used a condition that had a 2.7 m head and a

0.04 m3/s discharge. To design a cross-flow impeller, the
first parameter that must be known is the water velocity (V),
which can be calculated using (1):
(1)
is a water velocity coefficient equal to 0.98 [14].
Then, the water velocity is used to find the water tangential
velocity:
(2)
B. Numerical Method
The computational method was conducted with
ANSYS® FLUENT 18.2™ using a two-dimensional
transient domain. A fluid multiphase model volume was
selected with implicit volume fraction parameters and a body
force equation because the condition has two fluid phases,
which consist of water and air. The simulation also uses a
dynamic mesh setting with a six degrees of freedom (6-DOF)
user-defined function. The 6-DOF was chosen because it is
possible to comprehensively investigate the fluid dynamics
and physics phenomenon that occur in the cross-flow turbine
internal impeller [11].

Where is the water’s angle of attack when hitting the

blade. The water’s tangential velocity has a correlation with
the turbine’s tangential velocity (U), where Vt/U = 1.8 [9].
Therefore, the turbine tangential velocity can be obtained.
Using (3), the turbine tangential velocity can be used to
determine the impeller’s outer diameter; however, first the
angular velocity must be determined:

(3)

After the impeller’s outer diameter is known, the

impeller’s inner diameter can be determined. Sammartano
[9] performed a recent study that stated the impeller inner
diameter (Din) has a correlation with the outer diameter
(Dout), with the inner diameter being equal to 0.65 of the
outer diameter. To acquire the blade parameter, such as the
blade angle between two blade tips’ radiuses (θ) and the
blade curvature chord length ( ), it can be analysed with a
relation from (4) [15]:
(4)
Where β1 is the blade inlet angle. From (4) the α blade
schematic and impeller will be obtained (see Fig. 1). Rx is a
depth distance that will be variated in this study or blade
depth. The blade depth will be varied from 0 mm, 3 mm, 6
mm and 9 mm.
Fig. 2. Mesh visualization of 3 mm blade depth
The first step of the simulation process is an
independence test to determine the results of the calculation.
An independence test is a pre-calculating method to
determine the model turbulence, number of mesh and
timestep frequency that will be used. The turbulence model
was used to predict recirculating flow inside an impeller.
Furthermore, the turbulence model can yield a prediction that
is closer to the actual condition [6, 9, 14, 16, 17]. The
independence test consists of six turbulent models: laminar,
k-ɛ standard wall function, k-ɛ scalable wall function, k-ɛ
RNG standard wall function, k-ɛ RNG scalable wall function
and Transition SST. The independence test will analyse each
turbulence model force probe value.
 2018 4th International Conference on Science and Technology (ICST), Yogyakarta, Indonesia

A mesh independence study was carried out using the
same method as the turbulence model independence. The
mesh is the area in the object that can be visualised as a cell
where the calculating will take place. The number of mesh
are commonly categorised by element number. The higher
the element number, the more precise the result; however,
the calculation load will be heavier. To determine the mesh
number with accurate results and the lightest calculation
loads, the independence mesh was done with six variations
of element numbers: 10,876; 20,018; 30,631; 40,671; 50,117
and 60461.
Timestep independence was also conducted to obtain the
optimum timestep size. The test was performed until the
simulation ran for 0.4 seconds with four varied steps: 0.002,
0.001, 0.0008 and 0.0004 s of time. However, the simulation
was done until six seconds to achieve a steady condition.
The simulation varied the 2.7 m and 5 m heads with the
inlet boundary condition of pressure. The pressure inlet was
chosen because in a cross-flow turbine, the inlet is
converting pressure to velocity.
B. Numerical Results
In the independence turbulence model, the force probe at
1,0,0 in a k-ɛ RNG standard wall shows a 0.25% error than
SST (see Fig. 4). The k-ɛ RNG model turbulence can be
used for numerical calculations. The k-ɛ RNG model has an
advantage because it can predict a detailed turbulence flow
in a cross-flow impeller and only has two governing
equations lower than SST (four governing equations), which
results in lighter computing power [18]. Many recent
researches have been performed on the k-ɛ RNG turbulence
model for a cross-flow impeller, both as a fan or turbine [17,
19]. A CFD simulation study on a cross-flow turbine also
used the k-ɛ RNG turbulence model to predict recirculation
flow in cross-flow impeller, and it yielded an experimental
error of 4% [13].

III. RESULTS

A. Analytical Results
Fig. 3 and Table 1 show the geometry and the supporting
parameters obtained from (1) to (4). Acrylic with a thickness
of 8 mm was used for the impeller because of its light mass
and its manufacturing simplicity.

Fig. 4. Turbulence model independence

Fig. 3. Isometric drawing of cross-flow turbine: (a) impeller, (b) turbine

house

TABLE I. ANALYTICAL RESULT

Fig. 5. Mesh independence
Description Dimension
Velocity of water (V) 7.29 m/s The mesh independence study shows that mesh with a
Water Velocity Tangential (Vt) 6,61 m/s maximum face size of 4.4 x 10-3 m and three maximum
layer inflation had an error of -0.30% when compared to 3.9
Angle of attack (α) 22o
x 10-3 m and three maximum layer inflation (see Fig. 4).
Turbine Velocity Tangential (U) 3,67 m/s Therefore, the element number used in this study is
Blade inlet angle (β1) 42 o
approximately 50,117 elements. For timestep independence,
a timestep size of 0.008 s and a timestep number of 500 or
Outer Diameter (Dout) 180 mm the timestep frequency of 1250 Hz was selected because the
Inner Diameter (Din) 117 mm difference with 2500 Hz is not significant (see Fig. 5).
Number of blade (Z) 20

Length of blade (L) 145 mm

 2018 4th International Conference on Science and Technology (ICST), Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Fig. 6. Timestep frequency independence
Fig. 7. Numerical result with a 2.7 m head
From the numerical results, Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 show the
relation of efficiency and turbine velocity, where the turbine
velocity is characterised by U/V ratio. The impulse turbine
has a maximum efficiency if the U/V ratio is in the range of
0.42-0.47 [20]. Consequently, this study is investigating the
relation of efficiency to turbine velocity if the U/V ratio is in
the range of 0.42-0.50. However, a recent study has also
shown the optimum U/V ratio is in the range of 0.5-0.53
[21].
Fig. 7 shows that with a head condition of 2.7 m, the
efficiency of a cross-flow turbine with a blade depth of 3
mm demonstrated more stability and a higher efficiency.
Fig. 7 also shows that the efficiency of a cross-flow turbine
has a maximum number when the ratio of U/V is 0.48. The
simulation with inlet variation of head 5 m shows a similar
result with head condition 2.71 m, where the blade depths of
6 mm and 9 mm tend to have lower efficiency (see Fig. 8).
Fig. 8. Numerical result with 5 m head
IV. DISCUSSION
The numerical study was also used to analyse the turbine
pressure contour, water volume fraction and streamline. The
pressure contour and streamline are located in the impeller
area, and the water volume fraction contour are located in the
nozzle, outlet and environment area (see Fig. 9).
The streamline contours show there are recirculation
flows inside the impeller. A recirculation flow can cause the
impeller to work abnormally, which leads to decreased
impeller performance [22].
Based on Fig. 10 (a-d), most of the different blade depths
showed that the pressure has a high value when the water
first attacked the blade tip. A blade depth of 9 mm also
showed a higher pressure contour at the first stage. This
means a blade depth of 9 mm converts maximum kinetic
energy in the first stage. However, when water enters the
second stage, the water energy was drastically reduced so
that the energy conversion process does not significantly
occur in this place, consequently slowing the impeller’s
rotational speed. This also occurs with a blade depth of 6
mm, where momentum changes are not significant in the
second stage. There is no dominant energy conversion during
the second stage because the water volume fraction after
passing through the impeller is not dissipated (see Fig. 10 c
and d). Meanwhile, the 0 and 3 mm blade depths show the
water energy has dissipated (see Fig. 10 a and b). This result
indicated that the change in momentum due to blade depths
of 0 and 3 mm were better than blade depths of 6 and 9 mm.
Furthermore, the streamline shows the blade depth increases
made the vortex closer to the inside edge of the blade in the
second stage. This can decrease the rotational velocity and
torque generated so that the impeller works abnormally [20].
 2018 4th International Conference on Science and Technology (ICST), Yogyakarta, Indonesia

a. 0 mm b. 3 mm

Fig. 9. Results of pressure contour streamline and water volume fraction

c. 6 mm d. 9 mm
Fig. 11. (a-d). Pressure contour on different blade depths with a 5 m head

Based on Fig. 10 and Fig. 11, the concept offered by

Kaniecky, in which the usual cross-flow turbine becomes a
reaction turbine, is in doubt [13]. The pressure gradient on
the upper and lower sides of each blade does not exist.
a. 0 mm b. 3 mm Pressure gradient is an indication of lift force, and lift force is
the working concept of a reaction turbine [20].
To prove the effect of blade depth on performance, a
two-factor ANOVA without replication was used because
the blade depth is known (sample), and the inlet variation can
be controllable (columns) [23]. Microsoft Excel was used as
a calculation tool. Table II summarises the analysis with 90%
level probability, where Fcrit is higher than F. Therefore, the
treatments are having an effect. It statistically means that
blade depth has an influence on cross-flow turbine’s
performance. Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 show the 3 mm blade depth is
c. 6 mm d. 9 mm considered better than the others because it produces more
Fig. 10. (a-d). Pressure contour on different blade depths with the 2.7 m stable efficiency.
head
TABLE II. SUMMARY OF TWO-FACTOR ANOVA WITHOUT
Meanwhile, with the variation of a 5 m head, the REPLICATION
increasing of blade depth shows decreasing water pressure Source of P-
inside the impeller, meaning that the water’s kinetic energy SS df MS F Fcrit
Variation value
is not absorbed maximally on the first stage (see Fig. 11 a-d). Sample 0.068 3 0.0228 2.09 0.12 2.87
This is evidenced from Fig. 8, which shows the blade depths
of 6 and 9 mm have lower efficiency than the blade depths of Columns 0.002 8 0.0003 0.03 0.99 2.21
0 and 3 mm. Fig. 10 and Fig. 11 show that fluid dynamics Interaction 0.020 24 0.0008 0.08 1 1.82
are more dominant with a 3 mm blade depth, which means
the water’s kinetic energy is dissipated better. Within 0.394 36 0.0109

Total 0.485 71

V. CONCLUSION
A two-factor ANOVA without replication demonstrated a
relationship between blade depth and performance in a cross-
flow turbine. The numerical results showed that a 3 mm
blade depth was more stable and had higher efficiency than
other blade depths. In addition, the reaction turbine concept
cannot be used in cross-flow turbines because none of the
 2018 4th International Conference on Science and Technology (ICST), Yogyakarta, Indonesia
blades in the two conditions (2.7 m and 5 m heads) produced
lift force. Further studies on blade depth must investigate
more blade depth variations to confirm this study’s results
and to determine the ratio blade depth with an annulus (Dout -
Din).
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Funding this research provided by the Directorate of
Research and Service Community (DRPM) Universitas
Indonesia with grant No. 1343/UN2.R3.1/HKP/05/2018.
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