Renewable Energy 135 (2019) 266e276

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

Developing a method to design and simulation of a very low head

axial turbine with adjustable rotor blades
M.H. Sotoude Haghighi, S.M. Mirghavami, S.F. Chini, A. Riasi*
School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Tehran, 11155-4563, Iran

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Very low head (VLH) axial hydraulic turbines classified as micro-hydropower plants are capable of
Received 13 June 2018 harvesting energy from sites with elevations below 4.5 m. The VLH turbine output power can be
Received in revised form controlled by varying the rotational speed and the runner blade opening angles. In this paper, a design
31 October 2018
method for the VLH runner blade is developed. The numerical simulation of the designed system is
Accepted 5 December 2018
presented and validated against the experimental data of an industrial prototype. The procedure is
Available online 6 December 2018
started by determining the velocity components and angles at the inlet and outlet of 2D radial sections,
followed by choosing a hydrofoil for each radial section and calculating the hydrodynamic coefficients.
Keywords:
Axial hydraulic turbine
The stagger angle and the chord-length of the section are computed using a MATLAB code coupled with
Very low head XFoil. The multi-section product of 3D spherical radial sections in ANSYS TurboGrid 15.0 meshing tool
Rotor blade forms the runner blade and the guide vane. Importing the generated structured grid into ANSYS CFX 15.0
Guide vane solver, the RANS equations are solved using the SST turbulence model to capture the turbulent struc-
Opening angle tures. The simplified Rayleigh-Plesset equation for bubble growth rate in the homogenous two-phase
Cavitation model is applied to study the cavitation phenomenon for different states of runner opening angles
and rotational speeds. The maximum hydraulic efficiencies for most of the runner positions (at constant
angular velocity of 40 rpm) are more than 80%. We demonstrate the effects of runner blade opening
angle and the turbine rotational speed on the hydraulic efficiency curves and turbine efficiency hill chart.
The cavitation simulation demonstrates leading edge and tip gap cavitation in some off-design points at
different blade opening angles.
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The very low head (VLH) turbine is a new technology developed
by MJ2 Technologies for extracting energy from sites with head in
the range of 1.5 me4.5 m [1,2]. Since their power plant capacity is
below 500 kW, VLH turbines are classified as the micro-
hydropower plants [3]. A VLH turbine consists of a Kaplan rotor
with 8 blades, a distributor stage with 18 guide vanes, a variable
speed generator and a trash cleaner system installed at the turbine
inlet [4]. Based on the VLH manufacturer datasheet, using the
permanent magnet generator (PMG) a VLH turbine can work at
various rotational speeds. The variable frequency converters enable
the output power to match the electrical grid stability. The
adjustable rotor blade can be considered as another regulator,
which makes it possible to control the output power. Combination
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ariasi@ut.ac.ir (A. Riasi).
of the adjustable runner blade and the PMG technology makes a
double regulated system for the VLH turbine, similar to a Kaplan
power plant [5].
The VLH system has an inclined configuration in the installation
site and the installation angle is in the range of 30e50
depending
on the site [1]. Due to the mechanical structure of the VLH turbines,
the turbine upstream is considered as the water reservoir. More-
over, there is no need for traditional penstock and spiral casing for
the turbine inlet. At the turbine outlet, usually, no draft tube is
required, depending on the turbine installation site. The afore-
mentioned characteristics lower the civil cost to 40e50%, which is
considerable for sites below 3.2 m [4]. The existing hydraulic
structures such as small dams are positive candidates for VLH po-
wer plants [1,5].
The VLH turbine environmental impact on fish species has been
studied through several fish survival experiments. The results of
these experiments for different fish species demonstrate a survival
rate of more than 90% in case of passage study and downstream

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2018.12.024
0960-1481/© 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 M.H. Sotoude Haghighi et al. / Renewable Energy 135 (2019) 266e276 267

Nomenclature Rtip runner radius at tip (m)

Rvap condensation rate (kg/m3.s)
a1 constant in SST model S pitch length (m)
C chord length (m) Sij strain rate tensor
Cd drag coefficient T torque (N.m)
Cl lift coefficient U tangential velocity (m/s)
Cm axial component of absolute velocity (m/s) W∞ relative stream velocity (m/s)
Cu tangential component of absolute velocity (m/s) Z number of blades
D drag force (N)
Dhub runner diameter at the hub (m) Greek Symbols
Dtip runner diameter (m) a angle of attack (
)
F1,2 blending functions in SST model anuc volume fraction of the nucleation site
Fcond condensation coefficient av vapor volume fraction
Fvap evaporation coefficient b constant in SST model
g gravitational constant (m/s2) b1 relative velocity angle at the inlet (
)
H net head (m) b2 relative velocity angle at the inlet (
)
k turbulent kinetic energy (m2/s2) b∞ relative stream velocity angle (
)
L lift force (N) g stagger angle (
)
n rotational speed (rpm) d rotor blade opening angle (
)
N11 unit rotational speed h hydraulic efficiency (%)
Ns specific speed he electrical efficiency (%)
p static pressure (Pa) l gliding angle (
)
p∞ averaged static pressure of the rotor passage meff effective viscosity (kg/m.s)
P power (kW) nt kinematic turbulent viscosity (m2/s)
p’ modified pressure of k-u model (Pa) r density (kg/m3)
Pek production rate of turbulence in SST model s solidity
pv vapor pressure (Pa) sk constant of k equation in SST model
Q volumetric flow rate (m3/s) su constant of u equation in SST model
Q11 unit discharge su 2 constant of u equation in SST model
r radius of each section (m) 4 dimensionless flow coefficient
R resultant force on the hydrofoil (N) j dimensionless head
Rb bubble radius (mm) u turbulent frequency (1/s)
Rcond vaporization rate (kg/m3.s) U turbine rotational speed (rad/s)

migration, which endorsed the fish friendly trait for the VLH tur-
bines [5]. Furthermore, the submerged configuration makes neither
visual impression nor annoying noise [1,5].
The design procedure of the turbine runner for VLH sites has
been studied in the literature. In Ref. [6] the minimum pressure
coefficient criterion is used to design an axial turbine. This criterion
was adopted to VLH application by Ref. [7]. Regarding the minimum
pressure coefficient criterion, the minimum pressure coefficient on
the suction side should be within a region, e.g. larger than the vapor
pressure to avoid the cavitation [6]. Defining different values for the
rotor cascade solidity, the minimum pressure coefficient criterion
determines a low limit for pressure of the rotor blade suction side.
The minimum pressure in this criterion varies from the blade hub
to the maximum radial position, and causes an efficient hydrody-
namic loading for the turbine cascade [6,8].
A conventional assumption in the turbomachinery design is the
free vortex flow at the inlet and outlet sections, which leads to the
uniform distribution of the axial velocity [9]. In Refs. [10e12] this
theory has been applied to initiate the design process of hydraulic
turbines in axial-flow application. The free vortex criterion and two
other states of the outlet swirl velocity including the forced vortex
and the constant swirl velocity were presented for the design of a 4
bladed VLH turbine [13]. At the same rotational speed and flow rate,
the turbine designed based on the free vortex criterion has higher
static pressure on the runner blade. The higher static pressure
makes the turbine less prone to cavitation. However, the free vortex
criterion generates less power than when designed based on other
criteria [13].
The optimization of blade section profiles is another approach to
design an efficient runner. The optimization process by considering
the optimal value of the lift to drag ratio for hydrofoils at different
radial sections was done by Muis et al. [14]. They used a coupling of
MATLAB and XFoil to generate optimal 2D geometry for the blade
sections in order to design a VLH turbine at the operating condition
(i.e. flow rate, head and rotational speed of 128 l/s, 0.3 m and
90 rpm). In their work, the 2D cascade optimization was done using
the aforementioned minimum pressure coefficient criterion,
optimal angles at the cascade sections and the assumption of
shock-free inflow minimizing the cascade losses for incompressible
flows [8]. In addition, in Ref. [14] two geometries with different
solidity ratio were studied. Both showed the maximum power of
less than 0.7 kW and maximum efficiency higher than 90% at
different flow rates. A double stage contra-rotating configuration
for the runner, in which the runner consists of two stages rotated in
opposite directions, with a design approach and parameters similar
to Ref. [14] showed less efficiency for the same operating conditions
[15].
In Ref. [16], the “class function e shape function transformation”
(CST) method was used to optimize the 2D blades of a 295 kW VLH
turbine at the flow rate of 12.19 m3/s, the net head of 2.9 m and the
rotational speed of 65 rpm. The design resulted in 2.4% increase in
the hydraulic efficiency, compared to the original design.
The previous studies have taken different approaches for
designing a VLH turbine; however, most of the above designs have a
power range less than 10 kW, which cannot be considered as a
commercial range. Also, none of the above-mentioned
268 M.H. Sotoude Haghighi et al. / Renewable Energy 135 (2019) 266e276

investigations have studied the effects of rotor opening angles on Table 1

the turbine characteristics. As shown in Ref. [17], the Kaplan run- Primary design parameters of the rotor [2,4].

ners are prone to cavitation at the runner tip gap and low-pressure Design Parameter Selected Value
locations of the blade leading and trailing edges. None of the Power 450 kW
mentioned studies for VLH turbine have studied the cavitation Net Head 2.6 m
possibility. The Rayleigh-Plesset two-phase model can be consid- Flow Rate 22.7 m3s-1
ered as an effective model to predict the bubble generation zones. Runner Diameter 4.5 m
Rotational Speed 40 rpm
The cavitation phenomena deteriorates the efficiency of VLH tur-
bine and makes the comparison with the experimental results
more realistic [18].
Same as the other axial machines, the VLH turbine runner has a
Q
clearance at the blade tip. Although the effects of tip gap clearance 0:2 < Q11 ¼ < 1:2 (1)
on the turbine performance have not been numerically simulated D2 H0:5
for VLH turbine, there are some detailed numerical and experi-
mental investigations about its effects on axial machines [19]. nD
65 < N11 ¼ < 280 (2)
While a numerical simulation of axial pumps showed the direct H 0:5
effect of the tip clearance size on the tip vortex intensity and per- Moreover, the turbine discharge must be in range of
formance deterioration [20], other numerical and experimental 10e27.5 m3/s [2]. For the current turbine, values of unit discharge
researches emphasized on the role of the off-design flow rate on and unit rotational speed are respectively 0.695 and 111, which falls
the tip leakage flow and tip vortices [21,22]. A numerical simulation within the range. Since the peripheral velocity at the runner tip
of tip leakage vortex in the pump mode of a mixed flow pump as must be less than approximately 12.2 m/s in order to minimize the
turbine have demonstrated same patterns of the destructive effect fish mortality in hydraulic turbines [26], the selected rotational
of tip gap vortices on the efficiency and head of the simulated case speed seems appropriate for the fish friendliness criterion. In
[23]. The results of a numerical and experimental study of tip addition, the fish friendliness tests of the VLH turbine have been
clearance effect for the same mixed flow pump illustrated the performed at the rotational speed of 40 rpm, which is conventional
resultant radial force direction and magnitude in addition to the in the industrial functions [4]. The turbine specific speed, which is
comparison of the cavitation performance in symmetrical and un- pffiffiffi
calculated by Ns ¼ n P =H 5=4, is approximately 257 that is a normal
symmetrical configurations [24].
value for the axial turbines in micro-hydro systems [10]. By the
In this article, a design method for the VLH turbine including the
assumption of 90% for the electrical efficiency, the primary hy-
runner blades and guide vanes is developed. The design procedure
draulic efficiency of the VLH turbine for the design process calcu-
is based on the classic method for the axial pump design. At each
lated from h ¼ P=he rgQH is about 86.6%.
radial section of the runner blade, the selected hydrofoil is posi-
The design process is based on the classical design approach of
tioned defining the hydrofoil chord-length and stagger angle for
the axial turbomachinery presented by Stepanoff [27]. In this
the required lift coefficient of that section. The 3D spherical map-
method, the hub to tip ratio of the runner (Dhub =Dtip ) is assumed to
ping of the radial sections makes the blade rotation feasible in order
be 0.45. The inner portion of the rotor hub can be utilized for the
to examine the turbine performance at different opening angles.
generator installation and adjusting mechanisms of the runner
The turbine geometry, which is generated by means of a MATLAB
blades [4]. In the design approach, with respect to the Euler
code coupled with XFoil, is imported to ANSYS TurboGrid 15.0 for
equation for hydraulic turbines the peripheral velocity component
mesh generation. The steady-state numerical simulation of the
for each blade radial section at the inlet is determined from Eq. (3)
designed turbine in ANSYS CFX 15.0 solver in the multi-reference
[28]. This equation satisfies the free vortex assumption at the
frame using the viscous SST model is validated with the indus-
runner inlet section [10,11].
trial prototype data. The validation process of the current study for
the design point has been published previously by the authors [25]. hgH
However, this article contains a visual representation of the design CU ¼ (3)
U
method and newly added numerical results of the turbine perfor-
mance with respect to the multiphase numerical simulation per- The velocity triangles at the inlet and outlet of the blade are
formed for several runner blade opening angles. These results represented in Fig. 1(a). According to Fig. 1(b), the magnitude and
indicate the variation of the turbine output parameters for different angle of the relative stream velocity are calculated as:
rotational speeds and flow rates. The turbine efficiency hill chart is  
also presented. Using the homogeneous multiphase model, the C 2
W 2∞ ¼ C 2m þ U  U (4)
cavitation phenomenon is captured at some off-design points. 2

Cm
tanb∞ ¼ (5)
2. Design method of rotor blades and guide vanes U  C2U

The turbine characteristics to evaluate the current VLH turbine
design algorithm (Table 1) were selected based on the design
criteria of VLH turbines, Eqs. (1) and (2) [1]. These parameters are
used by the French industrial producer MJ2 technologies and
enable us to validate the simulation results [2,4]. According to the
experimental results of [1] for hydraulic efficiencies more than 80%
at the design point, the design parameters must satisfy the
following constraints [1]:
where the angle of the relative stream velocity at the inlet and
outlet of each radial section is determined using the velocity tri-
angles in Fig. 1(a) and using tanb1 ¼ Cm =ðU  CU Þ and tanb2 ¼
Cm =U, respectively.
During the design process for the different radial sections of the
rotor blade, we used the concept of gliding angle, l, in axial pumps
[18], i.e. Eq. (6), to apply the hydrodynamic characteristics of each
hydrofoil in the iterative procedure.
 M.H. Sotoude Haghighi et al. / Renewable Energy 135 (2019) 266e276 269

(a) (b)
Fig. 1. (a) The velocity triangles at the inlet and outlet of the blade, (b) the relative stream velocity and angle.

Cd
tan l ¼
Cl
According to the hydrofoil installation presented in Fig. 2(a), the
power of radial differential elements, dr, is calculated from Eq. (7),
in which dP is determined using the projected component of the
resultant force on the hydrofoil, R, on the direction of the tangential
velocity, U. The turbine head is given in Eq. (8), in which dQ ¼
Cm ZS dr.
dP ¼ ZRU sinðb∞  lÞdr
dP RU sinðb∞  lÞ
H¼ ¼ (8)
hrg dQ hrg Cm S
Using Eq. (8), the definition of the lift coefficient, and rotor so-
lidity (the ratio of the chord length to the blade pitch in each radial
section, i.e. s ¼ C=S, see Fig. 2(b)), and knowing that R ¼ L=cos l
(see Fig. 2(a)), the required lift coefficient for each rotor section is
found as:
2hgHCm cos l
Cl ¼
sW 2∞ U sinðb∞  lÞ
The chord length and the stagger angle of each radial section of
the rotor blade must be determined so that the selected hydrofoil
can be installed in that section. The solidity in Kaplan runners is
usually in the range of 2/3e1 [28]. Using the constant solidity for
VLH design is conventional and may lead to hydraulic efficiencies
more than 90%, e.g. Ref. [14]. Choosing the solidity equal to 1, the
(6) chord-length is equal to the blade pitch for each section. The
stagger angle of each section is calculated from:
g ¼ b∞  a (10)
in which the angle of attack (a) value is determined by XFoil to
provide the lift coefficient calculated in Eq. (9). The characteristics
of 5 blade radial sections using the hydrofoils of NACA 24XX series
to generate the rotor blade geometry are presented in Table 2.
(7) The generated geometry for the rotor blade and the guide vane
in TurboGrid is shown in Fig. 3. The stator stage consists of 18 guide
vanes used to adjust the flow direction for entering the rotor stage.
Each guide vane has a flat portion that is joined by a curved part to
another flat portion, which has a proper angle for the flow passing
the runner (Fig. 3(b)). The solidity of all the guide vanes radial
sections is chosen to be 0.7 in order to capture an angular arc of 14

by each vane. The chosen parameters for the guide vane were
achieved through testing different values for the number and the
guiding angle of the guide vanes. The final configuration of the
guide vanes is adjusted to generate the proper head and hydraulic
(9) efficiency at the design point. The guide vanes have a guiding angle
of 40
from the rotation axis in all of the guide vane radial sections.
The explained design method was applied using a MATLAB code
for each of the rotor blades or guide vanes. The numerical code for
the runner blade was coupled with XFoil to determine the proper
angle of attacks. The resulted curves were controlled by MATLAB
visualization tools and generated curve files were imported into
ANSYS TurboGrid 15.0 meshing tool to define the computational
grid for the rotor blade and guide vane passages, separately. This
approach of utilizing TurboGrid to make the multi-section of the
profiles at different radial sections to shape a blade, reduced the

Table 2
Characteristics of the runner blade radial sections.

r/Rtip 0.45 0.5875 0.725 0.8625 1

NACA Hydrofoil 2416 2408 2406 2406 2406

C (m) 0.795 1.038 1.281 1.524 1.767
W∞ (m/s) 2.97 4.08 5.28 6.51 7.77
b∞ (
) 63.10 33.33 22.76 17.41 14.15
l (
) 1.25 0.86 0.60 0.43 0.47
Cl 2.75 1.84 1.27 0.91 0.68
a (
) 32.66 16.54 9.76 6.14 4.02
Fig. 2. (a) Hydrodynamic forces on the 2D blade radial section, (b) blade pitch at tip
g (
) 30.44 16.79 13.01 11.27 10.13
section, inner and outer runner diameters.
270 M.H. Sotoude Haghighi et al. / Renewable Energy 135 (2019) 266e276

(a) (b)

Fig. 3. Designed geometry: (a) the runner blade, and (b) the guide vane.

required time for modeling the blade due to having no need for CAD 8 9
software. >
> >
>
>
>( " pffiffiffi ! #)4>
>
< k 500n 4rsu2 k =
3. Setting up the numerical simulation F1 ¼ tanh min max ; 2 ; (16)
>
>
>
0:09u y y u CDku y2 >
>
>
>
: >
;
3.1. Governing equations

"" pffiffiffi !#2 #

Due to the chord-based Reynolds number of the current prob-
2 k 500n
lem, which is in order of 107, the flow has a turbulent nature. In F2 ¼ tanh max ; 2 (17)
0:09uy y u
order to capture the turbulence effects, the commercial ANSYS CFX
15.0 solver uses the continuity and Reynolds averaged Navier-  
Stokes (RANS) equations in the following forms [29]: 1 vk vu
CDku ¼ max 2rsu2 ; 1010 (18)
u vxi vxi
vr vðrui Þ
þ ¼0 (11) According to above formulations, the SST model using a regional
vt vxi
approach, which contains blending functions of the model co-
  " !# efficients, applies Wilcox's k-u model near the walls and the
vrui v rui uj
0
vp v vui vuj
þ ¼ þ m þ (12) standard k-ε model near the boundary layer wall. Modifying the
vt vxi vxi vxj eff vxj vxi eddy viscosity by means of the turbulent shear stress makes the
flow separation prediction more exact (due to strong adverse
in which the effective viscosity is calculated from the dynamic and pressure gradients) [32]. These features make the SST model as the
turbulent viscosity values. The shear stress transport (SST) turbu- suitable turbulent model for flow simulation in hydraulic turbines.
lence model [30], in an approach similar to the other k-u models,
computes the turbulent viscosity by means of the turbulence ki-
netic energy and turbulent frequency (Eq. (13)) [31]. 3.2. Mesh generation

a1 k Considering the periodic approach to solve the governing

nt ¼  qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi  (13)
max a1 u; 2Sij Sij F2 equations, the computational grids for one blade from each of the
rotor and stator stages were generated. Using the TurboGrid “ATM
The turbulent viscosity can be achieved by solving the two (automatic topology and meshing) optimized” method, we are able
following transport equations for k and u [31]: to generate an appropriately structured mesh for the runner and
guide vane passages. This meshing method does not need to be
vðrkÞ vðrui kÞ ~ v vk modified by changing the control points and selects the proper
þ ¼ P k  0:09rku þ ðm þ sk mt Þ (14) approach from the traditional topologies automatically [29]. Using
vt vxi vxi vxi
the average chord-based Reynolds numbers of 107 and 3  106 for
vðruÞ vðrui uÞ 5 1~ v the rotor and stator passages and determining the desired yþ ¼ 1
þ ¼ F1 þ 0:44ð1  F1 Þ P k  bru2 þ ðm and a growth rate of 1.4 for the boundary layer grid, the structured
vt vxi 9 nt vxi
grids were produced, which consist of 800371 and 570750 hex-
vu 1 vk vu
þ su mt Þ þ 1ð1  F1 Þrsu2 ahedral cells for the rotor and guide vane passages, respectively.
vxi u vxi vxi Setting yþ value around 1 is advantageous to benefit from the
(15) automatic near wall treatment ability of the k-u based turbulence
models in ANSYS CFX 15.0 solver. This wall treatment model allows
where P ~ is derived using the value of production rate of turbulence the solver to select between the appropriate wall function formu-
k
in k-ε model. F1 and F2 , which are the SST model blending functions lation and the low Reynolds number approach to capture the wall
for the combination of k-ε and k-u, are calculated from Eqs. effects based on the flow characteristics [33].
(16)e(18) [31]. A cylindrical part with the inner and outer runner radii and a
 M.H. Sotoude Haghighi et al. / Renewable Energy 135 (2019) 266e276 271

length of 1.2 m was added at the bottom of the rotor passage so that
the modeling of the outflow water into the atmospheric pressure
would be reasonable. The length of this part was selected in such a
way that the minimum backflow occurs at the turbine outlet sec-
tion. This quasi-draft tube segment was modeled periodically and
contained 53951 cells with a boundary layer thickness of 2 mm in
10 layers.
As it was mentioned in Sec.1, the modeling of tip gap has an
important role in the turbine performance due to the generated
vortices at the tip clearance region. It is remarkable that the Fig. 4. The computational grid: (a) the guide vane passage, (b) the runner passage and
generated mesh includes the boundary layer mesh for the narrow (c) the boundary layer mesh at the runner hub section leading edge (up) and trailing
clearance between the blade tip and the turbine casing (which is edge (down).

0.001 of the runner diameter). Modeling of tip gap clearance

including generation of a compressed grid for capturing the tip gap
vortices and leakage flow in this work is similar to the gap
modeling in other hydraulic turbomachinery [34,35]. However, the
value for the gap in this work (4.5 mm) is constant and conven-
tional for the industrial prototypes [2].
The results of mesh study for the total combination of the rotor,
guide vane and the added cylindrical part in Table 3 shows the
mesh independency in the 4th grid. The relative error for the
calculated power at each grid level is defined regarding the calcu-
lated power at previous level. Fig. 4 demonstrates some views of
the generated structured mesh for the runner and guide vane
passages and the boundary layer mesh at the tip clearance and at Fig. 5. Tip clearance gap modeling and the computational grid at the blade tip region
the hub radial section. The modeling of the gap clearance can be for a gap clearance of 4.5 mm.

seen in Fig. 5. As it is illustrated in Fig. 5, the grid compressibility at

the runner blade tip region has been applied for the proper
Table 4
capturing of turbulence structures. Comparison between numerical and experimental results at the design point.

Parameter Experimental Data [2,4] Numerical Result Error (%)

3.3. Validation of numerical simulation
Head (m) 2.6 2.64 þ1.53
Output Power (kW) 450 471.293 þ4.73
Using the described grid, the simulation setup was validated
Hydraulic Efficiency (%) 86.6 89.27 þ3.19
with the industrial data in Refs. [2,4] at the design point. Therefore,
at the design point, the numerical simulation shows 471.293 kW for
the power, 2.64 m for the head and 89.27% for the hydraulic effi-
ciency. This result can be considered as a reasonable approximation stationary at the absolute frame of reference. The boundary con-
due to the periodic simulation of the VLH system and neglecting of dition at all of the walls is the no-slip wall. The uniform inlet ve-
the turbine losses in an open channel. The comparison between locity, which was proportional to volumetric flow rate, was set for
numerical and experimental results is shown in Table 4. In addition the inlet section of the guide vane cell zone. At the outlet section of
to this comparison, the trend of hydraulic efficiency variation with the cylindrical portion, an opening condition with entrainment
the unit discharge, as it will be displayed in Sec. 4, is similar to the option of zero gage pressure was defined, so that the possible
experimental curves for the empirical study in Ref. [1]. backflow could be calculated based on the flow direction [29].
The existing interfaces (two of them are shown in Fig. 6)
include: rotational periodic interface in the general grid interface
3.4. Solver settings and boundary conditions
(GGI) mode (applied to the periodic surfaces of all three cell zones
and permit the nonmatching grid elements to shape an interface
Having imported the generated computational grids for the
pair); and the two narrow ribbon parts of the runner blade tip
guide vane, the rotor and the quasi-draft tube portion into the
clearance (connected with a general GGI). For the connection be-
ANSYS CFX 15.0 solver, the domain, and boundary conditions were
tween the rotating and stationary domains, the frozen rotor model
determined. Fig. 6 demonstrates the cell zones configuration and
was utilized. The GGI frozen rotor option was selected for guide
the boundary conditions. While the cell zones of the guide vane and
vaneerunner and runneredraft tube interfaces.
the cylindrical outlet part are stationary, the runner domain rotates
In order to control the convergence of results, turbine head,
with a constant rotational speed of 40 rpm at the design point. All of
power, and hydraulic efficiency were traced. The turbine head was
the walls except the runner blade, its hub and the hub of the draft
calculated in each iteration based on the difference of the total
tube, which have an angular velocity same as the runner zone, are

Table 3
Mesh independency.

Grid No. Guide Vane Elements Runner Elements Draft Tube Elements Power (kW) Relative Error (%)

1 276750 324960 33118 483.24 e

2 371250 476040 41517 476.42 1.41
3 434250 683055 48772 470.83 1.17
4 570750 800371 53951 471.29 0.10
5 691725 848310 72992 471.46 0.04
272 M.H. Sotoude Haghighi et al. / Renewable Energy 135 (2019) 266e276
Fig. 6. Computational domains and boundary conditions in ANSYS CFX.
pressure between the inlet and outlet of the VLH system. The hy-
draulic efficiency is defined by Eq. (19), where the generated power
is extracted by the torque on the runner blade and hub surfaces.
TU
h¼
rgQH
Using the isotherm assumption for the energy equation, which
is reasonable for hydraulic turbines, the fluid temperature was set
at 25
C. To capture the possible cavitation, the homogeneous
multiphase model was used. In this Eulerian multiphase model, a
general velocity and turbulence field are assumed for the water
liquid and vapor. Due to the constant temperature, only the pres-
sure gradient effects are significant for the cavitation phenomenon.
The Rayleigh-Plesset formulation of bubble generation is consid-
ered as the interphase mass transfer model. In ANSYS CFX 15.0
solver, neglecting the surface tension and viscosity, the simplified
Rayleigh-Plesset equation (Eq. (20)) is used to calculate the rate of
bubble growth [29]. It is noticeable that for cavitation in hydraulic
applications, the bubble radius is more than 1 mm [36]. Therefore,
the effects of viscosity and surface tension, which are predominant
for bubble radius smaller than 1 mm [37], are not considerable in
dynamics of the cavitation bubbles in this work.
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
dRB 2 pv  p
¼ (20)
dt 3 r
In Eq. (20), pv is the vapor pressure at the constant temperature
of 25
C for this problem, which is 3169 Pa. Using Zwart cavitation
model [38], the fluid density in governing equations is replaced
with the relation of Eq. (21). Considering the rate of change of
bubbles volume and mass, the vapor volume fraction av can be
determined at regions with critical pressure condition on the
runner blade. The vaporization and condensation rates per unit
volume in Zwart model applied in CFX solver are calculated by Eqs.
(22) and (23) [39].
rm ¼ av rv þ ð1  av Þrl
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
3anuc ð1  av Þrv 2 pv  p
Rvap ¼ Fvap (22)
RB 3 rl
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
3av rv 2 pv  p
Rcond ¼ Fcond (23)
RB 3 rl
More details on the cavitation model can be found in
Refs. [29,39]. The afore-mentioned approach for cavitating flow
simulation has been applied and validated with experimental re-
sults in various investigations [18,40e44].
4. Results and discussion
Due to the spherical shape of the rotor hub, the rotor blades are
capable of rotating around an axis perpendicular to the hub surface.
This feature made it possible to study the effect of rotor blade angle
on the turbine performance. As shown in Fig. 7, the opening angle
of the rotor blades is defined by the blade angular deviation from
the design point configuration, i.e. positive opening angles repre-
sent the situations in which larger flow rates pass through the
turbine passage. The axis of blade rotation is aligned with the blade
twisting direction consisting of the hub sphere center and the point
located at 0.55 chord-length from the leading edge of the hub radial
section. The intersection of the blade rotation axis and the hydrofoil
of each section is where the 2D hydrofoil of that section is
tangential with the spherical surface of that radial section.
Fig. 8 illustrates the variation of hydraulic efficiency against the
unit discharge at the constant rotational speed of 40 rpm for 7
(19) values of the rotor angle. In Fig. 8 increasing flow rates for every
single opening angle causes decrease in the values of the unit
discharge. Based on the efficiency variations, one can conclude that
the positive opening angles lead to higher efficiencies. On the other
hand, the flow rates at the best efficiency point of larger opening
angles are out of the conventional working range for the VLH tur-
bines (10 m3/s < Q < 22.7 m3/s). Thus, the design point at the basic
opening angle can be considered as the most efficient point among
(21)
Fig. 7. Variation of the rotor blade opening angle.
 M.H. Sotoude Haghighi et al. / Renewable Energy 135 (2019) 266e276
Fig. 8. Turbine hydraulic efficiency at different unit discharges for various opening
angles of the runner blade; lines are cubic splines and a guide for the eye.
the curves presented in Fig. 8. Moreover, the trend of h - Q11 curves
of current turbine is similar to the experimental diagram of the
industrial prototype in Ref. [1]. It should be mentioned that our
design method and geometry are slightly different and, we may not
quantitatively compare the h - Q11 curves with the one in Ref. [1].
According to Fig. 9, at the constant flow rate of 22.7 m3/s, the
value of opening angle has a significant influence on the relation
between the hydraulic efficiency and the rotational speed. The
more open the rotor passage, the higher the efficiency peak.
Moreover, it can be deduced that the maximum efficiency of the
more positive rotor blades occurs at slower rotational speeds.
Fig. 10 represents the power variations caused by different opening
angles in which the more open blades cause a conspicuous drop in
the output power. This phenomenon can be explained considering
the intrinsic slower range of rotational speed for the positive blade
angles and simultaneously, the less torque on rotor blades due to
the less required head for the permanent flow rate in case of open
passages. As it is shown in Fig. 10, for the constant flow rate the
maximum power of each opening angle does not occur at the best
efficiency point. Using Figs. 9 and 10, we are able to alter the blade
angle and the turbine rotational speed in order to keep the effi-
ciency and the output power in a desired range.
Since the generated power by the turbine blades depends on the
pressure distribution around the blades, we calculated the pressure
Fig. 9. Turbine hydraulic efficiency at different rotational speeds for various opening
angles of the runner blade (Q ¼ 22.7 m3/s); lines are polynomial trend lines and a guide
for the eye.
273
Fig. 10. Turbine power at different rotational speeds for various opening angles of the
runner blade (Q ¼ 22.7 m3/s); lines are cubic splines and a guide for the eye. The best
efficiency points are the peaks in Fig. 9.
coefficient using the following relation:
p  p∞
Cp ¼ (24)
0:5 rW 2∞
in which p∞ is the averaged static pressure of inlet and outlet
sections of the rotor passage. The variations of pressure coefficient
at the middle radial section of the rotor blade in Fig. 11 indicate
more pressure difference between the pressure and suction sides of
the hydrofoil in negative opening angles, which consequently
causes larger torque in these opening angles. Moreover, at the
negative opening angles a decrease in pressure coefficient occurs at
the leading edge of the suction side, which may cause the cavitating
zone. The smooth behavior of the static pressure along the hydro-
foil in Fig. 11 can be related to the efficient selection of hydrofoils
and the appropriate inlet angle provided by the guide vanes. Fig. 12
indicates the static pressure distribution on the pressure and suc-
tion sides of the rotor blade at the design point.
The absolute velocity streamlines in Fig. 13, which is depicted
based on the results of the periodic solution, indicates the signifi-
cant role of the guide vanes in providing the proper inlet angle for
water entering the runner stage. It seems that the inappropriate
velocity condition, which may cause local pressure drop, occurs at
the locations near the lower part of the runner hub and also near
the turbine casing especially in the clearance between the rotor
blades and casing.
In case of changing the operating flow rate for the turbine
passage, based on the results shown in Fig. 14, the increase in flow
Fig. 11. Pressure coefficient profiles at the rotor blade radial section of r/Rtip ¼ 72.5%
and Q ¼ 22.7 m3/s.
274 M.H. Sotoude Haghighi et al. / Renewable Energy 135 (2019) 266e276
Fig. 12. Contours of the static pressure on the rotor blade (a) pressure side and (b) the
suction side at the design point.
Fig. 13. Streamlines at the design point in absolute reference frame simulated in pe-
riodic approach.
Fig. 14. Turbine hydraulic efficiency at different rotational speeds for various flow rates
(d ¼ 0); lines are polynomial trend lines and a guide for the eye.
rate creates a wider possible working range for the turbine rota-
tional speed. The efficiency peaks in Fig. 14 shift to the right (i.e.
higher rotational speed) by increasing the flow rate. However, the
optimum flow rate is still the design point (i.e. Q ¼ 22.7 m3/s). As it
was expected, for low rotational speeds the increase in flow rate is
followed by a drop in the hydraulic efficiency.
The dimensionless analysis of the current VLH turbine can be
presented by the typical hill chart of Fig. 15, in which the contours
of hydraulic efficiency with respect to the dimensionless head and
dimensionless flow coefficient are demonstrated. These
Fig. 15. Contours of hydraulic efficiency and j-4 curves for the blade opening angles.
dimensionless quantities are defined by the following relations
[45]:
gH
j¼ (25)
n2 D2
Q
4¼ (26)
nD3
In Fig. 15, the curves of blade opening angles can be utilized for
keeping the turbine in a constant value of j or 4. The hill chart
indicates the increasing range of appropriate efficiency for the
positive opening angles. Moreover, at the constant head coefficient
of the design point (jy0:8  103 ), more open blades configura-
tions show better efficiencies. However, at a constant flow coeffi-
cient, using Fig. 15, the best opening angle can be determined.
In order to study the possible cavitation, we considered the ef-
fect of three parameters on the cavitation location and intensity:
the volumetric flow rate, the rotational speed, and the runner
opening angle. First of all, at the best efficiency point of all the
opening angles in Fig. 8 there is no cavitation and the local pressure
drop at the leading edge is not enough to reach the water vapor
pressure. However, the results for all the positive opening angles
contains the leading edge cavitation due to the flow rates more
than the design point of that curve. For instance, the attached
cavitation zone caused by the low-pressure region at the leading
edge and suction side of the blade at the opening angle of þ7.5
and
the flow rate of 44 m3/s is demonstrated in Fig. 16(a).
Considering the cavitation conditions for the results of Fig. 9, we
are able to distinguish the effect of rotational speed and blade angle
on the cavitated zones. The numerical results of the vapor volume
fraction indicate that for the positive opening angles at the constant
flow rate of 22.7 m3/s there is almost no cavitation. However, at the
basic and negative opening angles, two kind of cavitation occurs.
The attached cavitation bubbles can be seen at low rotational
Fig. 16. Iso-surface of vapor volume fraction ¼ 0.1, a) at d ¼ þ7.5
, Q ¼ 44 m3/s and
n ¼ 40 rpm, and b) at d ¼ -5
, Q ¼ 22.7 m3/s and n ¼ 90 rpm.
 M.H. Sotoude Haghighi et al. / Renewable Energy 135 (2019) 266e276
speeds in narrow region at the leading edge and suction side of the
rotor blade. The thickness of this cavitated region is more near the
hub. The tip gap cavitation, which occurs at the leading edge of the
blade tip radial section, is observed at the high rotational speeds at
negative opening angles. This phenomenon can be explained with
regards to the high velocity region near the turbine casing rein-
forced by the intrinsic high rotational speed of the working range of
these blade configurations. In rotational speeds higher than 60 rpm,
the cavitation zone may be transferred to the pressure side of the
near tip region of the blade, as it is shown in Fig. 16(b).
5. Conclusion
Developing a hydrodynamic design method and numerical
simulation of a very low head turbine with industrial characteris-
tics was done. The design procedure was accomplished based on
the classical free vortex theory at the runner sections. The
designing program (MATLAB connected to an XFoil core) deter-
mined the hydrodynamic features at the runner blade radial sec-
tions and formed the selected hydrofoils with appropriate stagger
angle and chord length in each section. Then, the imported ge-
ometry of the runner blade and the guide vane in ANSYS TurboGrid
was utilized to generate the structured grid with hexahedral cells.
The steady-state homogenous two-phase numerical analysis in
ANSYS CFX 15.0 was done to solve the RANS governing equations
incorporating the SST turbulence model in a periodic approach for
the turbine portions. The numerical process was validated with the
experimental data in operating condition. At the design point, the
turbine output power was calculated 471 kW at the head of 2.64 m
and the hydraulic efficiency was more than 89%. The spherical
shape of the runner hub was used to investigate the turbine per-
formance at 7 values of the runner blade opening angle. The results
at the constant 40 rpm rotational speed showed that the optimum
efficiency increased by increasing the runner opening angle.
However, the leading edge cavitation was observed at large flow
rates of the positive opening angles. Although considering variable
rotational speed for constant flow rate of 22.7 m3/s indicated better
efficiencies (i.e. more than 90% in case of less rotational speeds with
increasing the opening angle), the output power decreased in more
open runner passages due to less loading in the runner blades and
the small values for the rotational speed range, simultaneously. The
turbine efficiency hill chart (based on to the dimensionless head
and dimensionless flow coefficient) and the runner opening angles
curves on it were presented to demonstrate the turbine double
regulating capability. In addition, the tip gap cavitation occurred at
rotational speeds more than 60 rpm of negative opening angles.
Due to the high computational cost, the future works are rec-
ommended to concentrate on finding an appropriate method for
transient simulation of a VLH turbine in an open channel. The free
surface model can be utilized to achieve a more realistic simulation
of the VLH turbine especially in case of cavitation at off-design
points. The optimization of different parts of VLH, (e.g. guide vane
and draft tube), is another suggestion for future works.
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