Optimization of Savonius type hydro-kinetic turbine for irrigation canal in the Philippines using computational fluid dynamics

Abstract The Philippines is an agricultural country that uses different types of irrigation systems. Harnessing energy from irrigation canals will increase the production of renewable energy. In this study, a Savonius type hydro-kinetic turbine has been optimized to harness the power in the irrigation Canal, Canal Lateral J-south Zone of the Angat Maasim River irrigation system located at Malolos, Bulacan in the Philippines. The velocity of the water flowing in the canal is 0.69 m/s. The number of blades and the overlap ratio were the parameters considered in the optimization of the turbine blades. Two, three, and four blades were considered in the study, in line with the overlap ratio of 0 to 0.2, with an interval of 0.05. The parameters of the turbine were optimized using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. The computational domain of the simulation was a portion of the width, depth, and length of the irrigation channel. The angular velocity (ω) was based on a Tip Speed Ratio (TSR) of 0.9. A total of 15 turbine design configurations were simulated. Each turbine configuration developed torque for each simulation. The torque was the basis for computing the coefficient of power (Cp) and the coefficient of torque (Ct). The three-bladed turbine with a 0.05 overlap ratio is the optimized design for this study with Cp and Ct of 0.2207 and 0.2453, respectively. It is recommended to consider a larger overlap ratio and a higher number of blades to further investigate the performance of the Savonius turbine.