The high-speed supercritical flow in steeply sloped channels contains a
significant amount of hydro-kinetic energy. A novel,
horizontal axis, spillway turbine as presented in this paper attempts to
convert that energy into electricity. We report on the turbine’s design and
experimental testing. Its intended use is in low-head, low-flow, manmade, concrete-lined channels such as chutes,
spillways and other similar steeply sloped open-channels. The design
lends itself from an impulse turbine runner
but without a pipe or a nozzle. The spillway turbine consists of 2 main
components: 1) the runner and 2) an accelerator channel that directs the water towards the runner’s
blades. The runner, once fitted with Pelton-inspired “cup inserts” shows
performance improvements both in terms of efficiency and specific speeds. The
specific speed and the speed factors calculated confirm that this novel
spillway turbine runner can be categorized as an impulse turbine. The maximum
efficiency obtained during laboratory testing is
43.4% and hence competes well with standard hydrokinetic turbines.
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