Numerical analysis of the impact of helical-blade design on flow characteristics and energy utilization in vertical-axis water turbine

In this study, a vertical-axis helical-blade water turbine is innovatively proposed by drawing on the design scheme of the traditional straight-blade turbine, compared to which this blade form can effectively improve the self-starting capability and energy capture efficiency of the turbine. The study analyzes the hydrodynamic performance of the device under different parameters using CFD (computational fluid dynamics) software STAR-CCM+ and overlapping mesh technique, and the CFD simulation results are verified with published experimental work. First, the design concept of the hydraulic turbine is presented, focusing on the design of the blades and transmission mechanism to ensure the stability of the structure. Second, the effect of two-dimensional parameters on the flow field characteristics and efficiency is investigated, and then three-dimensional design parameters, such as blade helix angle and hub-to-tip ratio, are considered. The results show that a 20% increase in blade density results in a 10.74% increase in efficiency. Regarding flow velocity, a maximum output of 2.4 kW was achieved for four operating conditions (1.0, 1.5, 2.0, and 2.5 m/s). In addition, the average dynamic torque of the helical-blade turbine was 16.44% higher than that of the straight-blade turbine, indicating superior self-starting capability. It was also found that at an aspect ratio of 1.5–1.75 and a helix angle of 80°, the energy capture efficiency of the helical-blade turbine was 33.7%, which was 45.3% higher than that of the straight-blade turbine. Comparative analysis shows that the vertical-axis helical-blade turbine has favorable hydrodynamic performance, especially under low flow conditions, and the design scheme shows obvious advantages, which makes up for the defects of the traditional vertical-axis straight-blade turbine with poor self-starting ability and low efficiency, and fills up the research gaps of vertical-axis turbine design optimization, which is of certain research value.