• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• 제17권4호
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• pp.30-39
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• 2014

The cross flow turbine is economical because of its simple structure. For remote rural region, there are needs for a more simple structure and very low head cross flow turbines. However, in this kind of locations, the water from upstream always flows into the turbine with some other materials such as sand and pebble. These materials will be damage to the runner blade and shorten the turbine lifespan. Therefore, there is a need to develop a new type of cross flow turbine for the remote rural region where there is availability of abundant resources. The new design of the cross flow turbine has an inlet open duct, without guide vane and nozzle to simplify the structure. However, the turbine with inlet open duct and very low head shows relatively low efficiency. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to optimize the shape of the turbine inlet to improve the efficiency, and investigate the internal flow of a very low head cross flow turbine. There are two steps to optimize the turbine inlet shape. Firstly, by changing the turbine open angle along with changing the turbine inlet open duct bottom line (IODBL) location to investigate the internal flow. Secondly, keeping the turbine IODBL location at the maximum efficiency achieved at the first step, and changing the turbine IODBL angle to improve the performance. The result shows that there is a 7.4% of efficiency improvement by optimizing turbine IODBL location (open angle), and there is 0.3% of efficiency improvement by optimizing the turbine IODBL angle.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• 제36권7호
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• pp.902-909
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• 2012

This study is aimed to develop a new type of micro cross-flow hydro turbine which has very simple structure and relatively high efficiency. Micro eco cross-flow hydro turbine (ECFT) is proposed to apply in the ranges of very low and middle specific speeds in order to extend the operational range of the turbine. In order to not only obtain a basic data for a new design method of ECFT but also improve the turbine efficiency, experiments and CFD analysis on the performance and internal flow characteristics of the turbine model are conducted. According to the present study results, anti-recirculation block (ARB) and relatively wide turbine width with high flow rate improve the turbine efficiency.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국신재생에너지학회 2009년도 추계학술대회 논문집
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• pp.493-493
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• 2009

Recently, small vertical axis wind turbine attracts attention because of its clean, renewable and abundant energy resources to develop. Therefore, a cross-flow type wind turbine is proposed for small wind turbine development in this study because the turbine has relatively simple structure and high possibility of applying to small wind turbine. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the turbine‘s structural configuration on the performance and internal flow characteristics of the cross-flow turbine model using CFD analysis. The results show that guide nozzle should be adopted to improve the performance of the turbine. Optimization of the nozzle shape will be key-importance for the high performance of the turbine.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• 제7권4호
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• pp.174-182
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• 2014

The ultimate objective of this study is to develop a water turbine appropriate for low-head open channels to effectively utilize the unused hydropower energy of rivers and agricultural waterways. The application of a cross-flow runner to open channels as an undershot water turbine has been considered and, to this end, a significant simplification was attained by removing the turbine casing. However, the flow field of an undershot cross-flow water turbine possesses free surfaces, and, as a result, the water depth around the runner changes with variation in the rotational speed such that the flow field itself is significantly altered. Thus, clear understanding of the flow fields observed with free surfaces to improve the performance of this turbine is necessary. In this study, the performance of this turbine and the flow field were evaluated through experiments and numerical analysis. The particle image velocimetry technique was used for flow measurements. The experimental results reflecting the performance of this turbine and the flow field were consistent with numerical analysis. In addition, the flow fields at the inlet and outlet regions at the first and second stages of this water turbine were clarified.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• 제29권4호
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• pp.317-321
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• 2015

Many kinds of generation systems have been developed to use ocean energy. Among these, with the use of an oscillating water column (OWC) for power generation is attracting attention. The OWC-type wave power generation system converts wave energy into electricity by operating a generator turbine with the oscillating water level in a column of water. There are two ways to convert wave power into electricity using an OWC. One uses a cross-flow turbine using the water level inside the OWC. The other method uses the flow of air in a Wells turbine, which depends on the water level. An experiment was carried out using a 2-D wave tank in order to minimize the number of empirical tests. The design factors were taken from Koo et al. (2012) and the experimental environment assumed by free surface motion. This paper deals with characteristics of two types of wave energy conversion systems combine with a breakwater. One model uses an air-driven Wells turbine and a cross-flow water turbine. The other type uses a cross-flow water turbine. Wave energy converters with OWCs have mostly been studied using air-driven Wells turbines. The efficiency of the cross-flow turbine was about 15% higher than that of the other model, and the water level of the OWC internal chamber for the cross-flow water turbine and air-driven Wells turbine was less than about 40% lower than the one using only the cross-flow water turbine.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• 제18권4호
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• pp.76-86
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• 2019

The cross-flow turbine is a key hydraulic power system that is widely due to low costs, high efficiency, and low maintenance. In particular, the cross-flow turbine considered as the most suitable turbine for low head situations as it is known to operate down to 5 m of water head. However, the conventional cross-flow turbine is unsuitable for ultra-low head situations with less than a 3 m water head. In this study, we propose an inverted-type cross-flow turbine to overcome the limitations of conventional cross-flow turbines under ultra-low head situations. First, we described the limitations of conventional turbines and suggested a new turbine for the ultra-low head circumstances. Second, we investigated the performance of the new turbine using CFD analysis. Results demonstrated the effects of the design parameters, such as number of blades and rotor diameter ratio, on the performance of the suggested turbine. As a result, we developed an inverted-type cross-flow turbine with up to 60% efficiency under low water head conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
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• 제20권2호
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• pp.107-119
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• 2021

The cross-flow turbine is one of the most famous and widely used hydraulic power systems for a long time. The cross-flow turbine is especially popular in many countries and remote regions where off-grided because of its many benefits such as low cost, high efficiency at low head, simple structure, and easy maintenance. However, most modern turbines, including the cross-flow turbine, are unsuitable for the ultra-low head situation, known as less than 3m water head or zero head with over 0.5m/s flow velocity. In this study, we demonstrated a 20kW class inverted-type cross-flow turbine's performance. First, we reevaluated our previous studies and introduced how to design the inverted-type cross-flow turbine. Secondly, we fabricated the 20kW class inverted-type cross-flow turbine for the performance test. And then, we designed a testbed and installed the turbine system in the demonstration facility. In the end, we compare the demonstration with its previous CFD results. The comparing result shows that both CFD and real model fitted on guide vane angle at 10 degrees. At the demonstration, we achieved 42% turbine efficiency at runner speed 125 RPM.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• 제11권3호
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• pp.22-29
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• 2008

Clean and renewable energy technologies using ocean energy give us non-polluting alternatives to fossil and nuclear-fueled power plants to meet establishment of countermeasures against the global warming and growing demand for electrical energy. Among the ocean energy resources, wave power takes a growing interest because of its enormous amount of potential energy in the world. Therefore, various types of wave power conversion system to capture the energy of ocean waves have been developed. However, suitable turbine type is not normalized yet because of relatively low efficiency of the turbine systems. The purpose of this study is to investigate the internal flow and performance characteristics of a cross-flow type hydro turbine, which will be built in a caisson for wave power generation. Numerical simulation using a commercial CFD code is conducted to clarify the effects of the turbine rotation speed and flow rate variation on the turbine characteristics. The results show that the output power of the cross-flow type hydro turbine with symmetric nozzle shape is obtained mainly from Stage 2. Turbine inlet configuration should be designed to obtain large amount of flow rate because the static pressure and absolute tangential velocity are influenced considerably by inlet flow rate.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• 제32권3호
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• pp.413-420
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• 2008

In order to improve the performance of cross-flow hydro turbine, detailed examination of the effect of the turbine configuration on the performance is needed necessarily. Therefore, this study is aimed to investigate the effect of blade angle on the performance of the cross-flow hydro turbine. Analysis of the turbine performance with the variation of the blade angle has been made by using a commercial CFD code. The results show that inlet and outlet angles of runner blade give considerable effect on the performance of the turbine. Pressure on the surface of the runner blade changes remarkably by the blade angle both at the Stages 1 and 2. Moreover, relatively small blade inlet angle is effective to produce higher value of output power. Recirculating flow in the runner passage causes remarkable hydraulic loss.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 대한기계학회 2007년도 춘계학술대회B
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• pp.2833-2838
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• 2007

Recently, small hydropower attracts attention because of its clean, renewable and abundant energy resources to develop. However, suitable turbine type is not determined yet in the range of small hydropower and it is necessary to study for the effective turbine type. Moreover, relatively high manufacturing cost by the complex structure of the turbine is the highest barrier for developing the small hydropower turbine. Therefore, a cross-flow turbine is adopted because of its simple structure and high possibility of applying to small hydropower. The purpose of this study is to examine the optimum configuration of nozzle shape to further optimize the cross-flow hydraulic turbine structure and to improve the performance. The results show that pressure on the runner blade in Stage 1 and velocity at nozzle outlet have close relation to the turbine performance.