New Geometry for the Enhancement of the Raceway Pond Performance

This work aims to enhance the hydrodynamic properties of microalgae production units which can solve the issue of the energy demand and the environmental problem of the world. The studied system is a raceway pond built in Monastir city in Tunisia. By using the commercial CFD software, ANSYS Fluent, a set of simulations was created to assess the hydrodynamic characteristics of the pond. The results were verified through the experimental measurements of the fluid velocity in both channels of the system. The standard k-ɛ turbulence model was used to model the turbulence created by the paddle wheel of the fluid flow. Two design parameters were studied in this paper. The impact of the configuration of the bend system's endpoint on the behavior of the pond was investigated by altering two radii. The numerical findings align well with the experimental observations.