11

2012,24(1):11-16
DOI: 10.1016/S1001-6058(11)60213-8
A NOVEL DESIGN OF COMPOSITE WATER TURBINE USING CFD
*
WANG Ji-feng, PIECHNA Janusz, MLLER Norbert
Turbomachinery Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing,
USA, E-mail: jwang94@illinois.edu
(Received May 22, 2011, Revised September 15, 2011)
Abstract: This paper presents computational investigation of a novel design of composite material axial water turbine using
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Based on three-dimensional numerical flow analysis, the flow characteristics through the
water turbine with nozzle, wheel and diffuser are predicted. The extract power and torque of a composite water turbine at different
rotating speeds were calculated and analyzed for a specific flow speed. The simulation results show that using nozzle and diffuser
can increase the pressure drop across the turbine and extract more power from available water energy. These results provide a
fundamental understanding of the composite water turbine, and this design and analysis method is used in the design process.
Key words: water turbine, composite material, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), extracted power
Introduction

Hydropower, the energy from moving water, is
one of the oldest renewable energy sources and the
total global electric power capacity of hydropower,
including large hydropower, small hydropower, and
ocean power, was approximately 820 GW in 2005,
which accounted for almost 20% of the renewable
energies
[1]
. In 2003, the world- first commercial-scale
marine current turbine with a 300 kW rated power was
successfully installed by Marine Current Turbines
(MCT) Ltd and IT-Power
[2]
. Myers and Bahaj
[3]
tested
a 0.4 m diamater horizontal axis marine current tur-
bine in a circulating water channel and measured the
power output over a range of flow speeds, and the
results were comparable to previous studies. Canadian
National Research Council Hydraulics, Energy, Mines
and Resources designed and tested a straight bladed
darrieus rotor set with an installed capacity of 5 kW
[4]
.
However, sub-marine structures have to withstand the
notoriously aggressive marine environment with its
corrosive salt water, fouling growth and abrasive sus-
pended particles. Traditionally, steel has been used to
produce marine rotors with the stiffness required to

* Biography: WANG Ji-feng (1979-), Male, Ph. D. Candidate
Corresponding author: MLLER Norbert,
E-mail: Mueller@egr.msu.edu
combat yielding, however, it is very expensive to
achieve the necessary compound-curved profile in
steel. In addition, steel is heavy, prone to fatigue and
susceptible to corrosion induced by salt water. These
disadvantages prompted a decision to adopt compo-
sites instead
[5]
. Advanced composite materials are
broadly used in water turbine application because of
their high strength to weight ratios and high corrosion
resistance, which are expected to be the key to the
success for these devices to operate in the harsh
marine environment. A novel manufacturing approach
similar to filament winding is able to produce the
automated composite wheels in different possible
patterns in Turbomachinery Lab at Michigan State
University (MSU) (Fig.1)
[6]
.
Fig.1 Different patterns of wound wheels
12
The advantage of using filament winding method
to manufacture high performance and light-weight
composite wheels is that the production can be rapid,
inexpensive and utilize commercially available
winding machines
[7]
. Another important advantage of
using this novel pattern of wheel is that by using inte-
grated magnetic rotor it will achieve a minimal impact
on underwater life forms. Most marine creatures will
be able to pass through the center of the wheel avoi-
ding the blades. To extract more water power, we
designed a ducted turbine and performed the simula-
tion. There are some major advantages by using diffu-
ser-augmented marine current turbines
[8]
: (1) A diffu-
ser placed behind the wheel can reduce the down-
stream pressure and draw in more flow for a given
sized turbine. (2) A large inflow area containing a
large amount of energy is concentrated into a smaller
area so that a smaller turbine can be used for a given
power output. (3) The duct eliminates tip losses on
axial flow turbine blades and improves its efficiency.
To understand the hydrodynamic performance of
this totally untypical wheel as a water turbine, as well
as the influence of the wheels rotating speed on the
power output, numerical approach was performed
using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The
extracted power and torque were calculated at diffe-
rent rotating speeds in a specific flow speed. Static
pressure distribution on computational domain and
turbine was given to evaluate the turbines characteri-
stics.
Fig.2 A multiple axis winding machine and a schematic repre-
sentation of fiber wetting and wounding
1. Novel composite material water turbine
1.1 Novel concept of the turbine
The invention at MSU can be realized by a low-
cost flexible and fully automatic manufacturing
method using commercially available CNC machines
shown in Fig.2 for filament winding of the turbo-com-
pressor wheels.
These machines can be used for rapid-proto-
typing and mass-production. They integrate convenie-
ntly into CAD/CAM systems. During or after the
winding process, the support structure can either be
removed or remain in the wheel as a structural ele-
ment, especially if the support is of a magnetic mate-
rial and used as an electromagnetic element of an inte-
grated motor or bearing. In this and other ways, motor
and bearing elements can be integrated during the
winding -all in one production step. Depending on the
size and sophistication, one wheel may cost even less
than ten dollars.
Fig.3 Free-stream flow direction
1.2 Working condition of the turbine
In this work the turbine was simulated in a free
stream velocity with 5 m/s which was chosen acco-
rding to the near future test condition. The turbine will
be tested by mounting it in a moving carriage and dri-
ving it at a steady speed, in still water. This is equiva-
lent to mounting the turbine under a fixed pontoon in
moving water. The rotating speed of the turbine can
be changed corresponding to the different extracted
torques and powers, and the optimal rotating speed
will be chosen based on the maximum power genera-
tion. The free-stream flow direction is from nozzle to
diffuser as shown in Fig.3.
Table 1 Main parameters of the modeled turbine
Nozzle inlet diameter (m) 9
Nozzle outlet diameter (m) 4
Turbine diameter (m) 4
Turbine blade thickness (m) 0.02
Diffuser outlet diameter (m) 6
Fluid density (kg/m
3
) 998.2
Working fluid Water
13
1.3 Turbine design
The turbine wheel parameters were constrained
by the dimensions of the water tow tank where the
testing will be preformed in the near future. The para-
meters of modeled turbine in this study are shown in
Table 1.
Fig.4 Composite material wheel
1.3.1 Influence of the blade number
During the performance analysis of a water tur-
bine, blade number is one of important design parame-
ters. If the blade number is too great, the crowding out
effect phenomenon at the turbine is serious and the
increase of interface between free stream and blade
will cause the increment of hydraulic loss, while if the
blade number is too small, the diffuser loss will
increase with the growth of diffuse extent of flow
passage
[9]
. Of the many different patterns shown in
Fig.1 designed by Eyler
[10]
, one pattern with the grea-
test potential of structure stability and fluid dynamic
performance has been selected for the marine current
turbine shown in Fig.4
[11]
. To achieve a minimal
impact on underwater life forms, without using an
external shaft, this wheel can be actuated from a
magnetic force between poles in the outer shroud and
coil poles on a stationary device surrounding the
wheel and housing
[7]
. The selected wheel pattern with
8 blades shown in Fig.4 gives most uniform distribu-
tion of free space for marine creatures to go through
its central area. In our design process, we want to take
into account not only the power generation, but also
the environmental influence and the totally untypical
wheel pattern with 8 blades gives us the most promi-
sing solution.
1.3.2 Influence of the blade angles
The analysis of influence of blade angles on
extracted power has been made in a wide range of
angles (from 25
o
to 60
o
as shown in Fig.5) to find the
relation between the power generation and blade
angles. Taking into account of safety factors, we have
limited the wheels tip speed to 5 m/s. Because of this,
we have chosen the rotating speed 20 RPM as the
closest speed to this limit. Since we want to connect
the water turbine generator to electric net which requi-
res a constant rotational speed of turbine wheel, we
concentrated our investigation on the water stream
velocity as 5 m/s, which is achieved on the testing
frame in the near future water tow tank, and rotational
speed of turbine wheel as 20 RPM (electric output fre-
quency is 60 Hz which is achieved by the gear
between the generator and turbine wheel).
Fig.5 Normalized extracted power variation with rotating
speed for different blade angles
Fig.6 Modeling of wound turbine wheel
2. Numerical simulation of the turbine flow
2.1 Geometry modeling and grid preprocessing
In this study, the preprocess including model and
non-structure mesh generation was completed in NX
and GAMBIT. The modeling of a wound turbine
wheel is shown in Fig.6.
In order to accurately simulate the flow in a tur-
bine passage, further mesh refinement of the turbine is
required. The meshing sizes in the turbine are strictly
controlled and particular refinements have been made.
In all CFD simulations, a mesh dependence test is
important in order to check the convergence of the
computationl results with respect to spatial resolu-
tion
[12]
. The mesh dependence test is performed by
refining the mesh to its final configuration shown in
Fig.7 that has been selected for the analysis.
2.2 Governing equations
CFD is fundamentally based on the governing
equations of fluid dynamics. They represent mathema-
tical statements of the conservation laws of physics,
14
where the following physical laws are adopted:
(1) Mass is conserved for the incompressible
fluid at steady state as
( ) = 0
i
i
u
x

(1)
(2) For the fluid analysis of the entire turbine at
steady state, the Navier-Stokers equations are used in
the following form
( )
2
= + + +
3
j
i
i j ij
j i j j i
u
u p
u u
x x x x x










2
+ +
3
j
i l
t t ij
j j i l
u
u u
pk
x x x x











(2)
Fig.7 Meshing of computational domain
2.3 Boundary conditions and solving procedures
Since the working fluid is ocean water, the CFD
simulations were calculated based on assumptions as
follows: (1) incompressible flow, (2) steady state flow,
(3) smooth walls with no-slip boundary condition.
Boundary conditions were set as follows: velocity at
inlet and pressure at outlet, interfaces between nozzle,
wheel and diffuser, and symmetry boundary condi-
tions for the side walls
[13]
. In Fluent, no defining sur-
faces are considered walls. Since the Navier-Stokes
equations are solved inside the domain, no-slip boun-
dary condition is applied to all walls in the domain
[14]
.
Therefore, at all surfaces the flow velocities in three
directions = = = 0 u v w .
Modeling the wheel rotation is complex as the
relative motion between the rotating wheel and the
stationary fluid zone causes a cyclic variation of the
solution domain. Sliding Mesh (SM) is one of com-
monly used modeling methods. By using the SM
model, the wheel region can slide relative to the other
regions in discrete time steps and using implicit/expli-
cit interpolation of data at successive time-steps
[15,16]
.
In this paper, the SM model was used to obtain more
accurate results of the actual phenomena of the wheel
rotation.
Reliable results can be given only by a well con-
verged, posed and grid independent simulation. Con-
vergence is determined by the order of magnitude of
the residues. It should be noted that convergence cri-
teria must assure that the results do not change as the
iterations proceed. In this study, the mass flow rate
and momentum change for the convergence tolerance
10
4
were monitored, and when they stay at a certain
number and do not change as the iterations continue, it
can be stated that the solution has converged.
Fig.8 Static pressure distribution on turbine
Fig.9 Static pressure distribution in the computational domain
15
3. Results and discussion
3.1 Static pressure and velocity distribution
To extract energy from the water, a thrust force T
directed upstream must be generated. On this axial
marine current turbine, the thrust is obtained by rota-
ting blades, which create a pressure drop across the
turbine. The ideal extracted power, which is not what
would actually be recovered at the shaft, is the product
of the water flow through the turbine and the pressure
drop across the turbine
[12]
. Figure 8 shows the static
pressure distribution on the turbine, in which it is seen
that the pressure is higher on the turbine front.
Figure 9 shows the static pressure distribution on
the whole computational domain, in which it is obse-
rved that the pressure drop is increased due to the
nozzle and diffuser.
Fig.10 Velocity contours in the computational domain
Fig.11 Velocity vectors in the computational domain (upper)
and on turbine (bottom)
Figure 10 shows the velocity contour in the com-
putational domain, in which it is seen that the water
velocity is increased just before entering into the tur-
bine due to the nozzles effect. Figure 11 shows the
velocity vectors in the computational domain and tur-
bine.
Fig.12 Variation of extracted torque with rotating speed of tur-
bine at inlet flow speed of 5 m/s
3.2 Influence of the rotating speed
Figure 12 shows the extracted torque variation in
a free stream of water with various hydrodynamic
flow conditions. The maximum extracted torque is
190 kNm. For a specific water flow speed, different
rotating speeds of the turbine are simulated. From this
figure, it can be observed that the torque decreases
with rotating speed in a quasi-linear fashion for a spe-
cific water flow speed. Torque also decreases with
flow speed for a specific rotating speed.
Fig.13 Extracted power variation with rotating speed of turbine
at inlet flow speed of 5 m/s
Figure 13 shows the variation of extracted power
in a free stream of water with various hydrodynamic
flow conditions. The maximum extracted power is
220 kW. This figure indicates that for a specific water
flow speed, the extracted power increases with rota-
ting speed until obtaining a maximum power, at which
further increases in rotating speed serve to reduce the
amount of power extraction. To extract the possible
maximum power, the water turbine should be working
at a suitable rotating speed. For a specific rotating
condition, the power is dependent on the water flow
16
speed, e.g., it increases with the water flow speed.
4. Conclusion
A novel manufacturing approach similar to fila-
ment winding has been developed and is able to pro-
duce the composite material water turbine, which have
significant advantages over traditional designs. In
order to use this totally untypical wheel to succeed in
extracting ocean current energy, a CFD simulation
using Fluent has been performed. The simulation resu-
lts show that using nozzle and diffuser can increase
the pressure drop and extract more power from availa-
ble water energy. The torque decreases with rotating
speed in a quasi-linear fashion for a specific water
flow speed, the extracted power increases with rota-
ting speed until obtaining a maximum power, so the
water turbine should be working at a suitable rotating
speed for the maximum power output. These results
provide a fundamental understanding of the composite
water turbine, and this design and analysis method is
used to determine the turbines performance. The
future work is testing the turbine by mounting it in a
moving carriage and driving it at a steady speed in
still water to simulate the free stream and validate the
numerical results.
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