An experimental facility for the development of a gravitational water vortex turbine

Abstract

Gravitational water vortex turbine (GVT) is a run-of-the-river hydroelectric system used for generating electricity in the absence of a large dam and a reservoir; i.e., GVT generates power using the water natural flow rate. Recently, the development of GVT is gaining a growing interest within the scientific community concerning the advantages associated with the technology in the process of electric power production. This work describes the design of an experimental facility for the characterization of a GVT in order to understand in a detailed way the effect of the variation of hydrodynamic and geometric parameters on the performance curve of the turbine. The experimental results demonstrated that a wider vortex is generated at lower channel inflow velocities. Additionally, a maximum efficiency of 0.495 at 140.25 rpm was found for the GVT tested.