• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.95-104
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• 2022

Micro hydropower is a readily available renewable energy source that can be harvested utilizing hydrokinetic turbines from shallow water canals, irrigation and industrial channel flows, and run-off river stream flows. These sources generally have low head (<1 m) and low velocity which makes it difficult to harvest energy using conventional turbines. A horizontal-axis screw turbine was designed and numerically tested to extract power from such low-head water sources. The 3-bladed screw-type turbine is placed horizontally perpendicular to the incoming flow, partially submerged in a narrow water channel at no-head condition. The turbine hydraulic performances were studied using Computational Fluid Dynamics models. Turbine design parameters such as the shroud diameter, the hub-to-shroud ratios, and the submerged depths were obtained through a steady-state parametric study. The resulting turbine configuration was then tested by solving the unsteady multiphase free-surface equations mimicking an actual open channel flow scenario. The turbine performance in the shallow channel were studied for various Tip Speed Ratios (TSR). The highest power coefficient was obtained at a TSR of 0.3. The turbine was then scaled-up to test its performance on a real site condition at a head of 0.3 m. The highest power coefficient obtained was 0.18. Several losses were observed in the 3-bladed turbine design and to minimize losses, the number of blades were increased to five. The power coefficient improved by 236% for a 5-bladed screw turbine. The fluid losses were minimized by increasing the blade surface area submerged in water. The turbine performance was increased by 74.4% after dipping the turbine to a bottom wall clearance of 30 cm from 60 cm. The final output of the novel horizontal-axis screw turbine showed a 2.83 kW power output at a power coefficient of 0.63. The turbine is expected to produce 18,744 kWh/year of electricity. The design feasibility test of the turbine showed promising results to harvest energy from small hydropower sources.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.121-129
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• 2020

This paper described a laboratory investigation of micro hydropower at lower head water in a free vortex flow. The vortex height, turbine rotation and torque for straight blade with inner curved edge, twisted blade and curved blade were investigated at the flow rate of 0.0069 ㎥/s in the inlet channel. The results showed that the optimum vortex strength occurred within the range of the diameter of basin to the outlet diameter ratios of 0.17~18.5. The power output and efficiency of straight blade were higher as compared to other blades. The highest amount of generated energy was 12.33 W, the torque was 0.91 N·m and the highest efficiency by considering effective head was 29.5 %, whereas the highest efficiency by considering vortex height was 80.5 % at the rotational speed of 132 rpm. The water vortex velocity of straight blade was about 2.8 times larger than the mean velocity in the inlet channel.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.11-19
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• 2015

Recently, the cross flow turbines attract more attention for their good performance over a large operating regime at off design point. This study employs a very low head cross flow turbine, which has open inlet duct and has barely been studied before, to investigate the performance of the cross flow turbine with air suction from the rear part of the runner. Unlike conventional cross flow turbines, a draft tube is attached to the outlet of runner to improve the turbine performance. Water level and pressure in the draft tube are monitored to investigate the influence of air suction. Torque at local blade passage of three parts of runner is examined in detail under the conditions of different air suction. Consequently, it is found that with proper air suction in the runner chamber, the water level in the draft tube gradually drops to Stage 2 of the runner and the efficiency of the turbine can be raised by 10%. Overall, the effect of air-layer on the performance of the turbine is considerable.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.45-55
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• 2004

The paper describes the rainfall-runoff. soil moisture distribution and subsurface flow of 'U-shaped Goll' valley head slope to evaluate quantitatively the interaction between the water circulation system and geomorphic development. The findings are as follows: The fissure and the pipe entrance in front of 'U-shaped Goll' introduce a lot of direct runoff into either the soil pipe or the soil layer to accelerate the erosion of the soil layer, so that they are likely to contribute to the expansion and development of the soil pipe. Most of soil water is to be drained in pipe flow, while some of remaining soil water is to be fed into groundwater. Therefore, low rainfall intensity is thought to let both the groundwater level and the pipe flow react sensitively by the effects of the precedent rainfall even at events: As a result, the soil pipe is said to be an important factor having influence upon the material balance of 'U-shaped Goll' valley head slope. On the other hand, the groundwater shows greater specific flux at the top than at the bottom, and relatively larger specific flux is applied to the top to make 'U-shaped Goll' valley head slope go back to the top.

• Journal of Animal Environmental Science
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.77-82
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• 2001

This research was carried out to investigate the daily amount and characteristics of wastewater produced from bucket milkers, pipeline, tandem ad herringbone milking system for washing operations after milking included 28 dairy farms. The average amount of wastewater produced from milking system was 9.8l/head/day. The amount of wastewater varied from a low of 8.2 litters/head/day(pipeline milking system) to 13.4 litter/head/day(herringbone milking system). The moisture content, Biochemical Oxygen Demand($BOD_5$), Chemical Oxygen Demand($COD_{Mn}$), Suspended Solids(SS), Total Nitrogen(T-N) and Total Phosphorus(T-P) concentration of wastewater were 99.9%, 394mg/l, 417.3mg/l, 1,201.3mg/l, 3.78mg/l, 0.51mg/l.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.775-780
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• 2008

This paper reports on the internal flow of a centrifugal mini pump working at the low flow rate operating conditions. The RNG $\kappa-\varepsilon$ turbulence model was employed to simulate the three-dimensional turbulent flow in the pump. To examine and certify the simulation results, a transparent acrylic centrifugal mini pump model which is suitable for PIV measurement has been developed. The tongue region and the passages region between blades were investigated using PIV. In order to eliminate the effect of refraction on the area closed to the wall and increase the measurement accuracy, the fluorescent particles were scatted into the working fluid with the tracing particles. It is found from the calculation and PIV measurement results that there is a large area of recirculation flow near the tongue at low flow rate operating conditions. The computationally predicted water head using the $\kappa-\varepsilon$ turbulence model at low flow rate operating conditions are in very good agreement with the experimentally measured water head and the mean velocity distributions at investigation area obtained by PIV and calculation showed a satisfactory agreement as well. Meanwhile, the results of PIV measurements show that the flow status in one passage is different to another. And for capturing the internal flow detail information, the $\kappa-\varepsilon$ turbulence model is not very suitable.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.177-184
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• 2013

This study analyzed the hydraulic characteristics of a venturi flume with a circular cone using a 3-D numerical model which uses RANS(Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes Equation) as the governing equation. The venturi flume with the circular cone efficiently measures the discharge in the low-flow to high-flow range and offers the advantage of accurate discharge measurements in the case of a low flow. With no influence of the tail-water depth, the stage-discharge relationship and the flow behaviors were analyzed to verify the numerical simulation results. Additionally, this study reviewed the effect of the tail-water depth on the flow. The stage-discharge relationship resulting from a numerical simulation in the absence of an effect by the tail-water depth showed a maximum margin of error of 4 % in comparison to the result of a hydraulic experiment. The simulation results reproduced the overall flow behaviors observed in the hydraulic experiment well. The flow starts to become influenced by the tail-water depth when the ratio of the tail-water depth to the total head exceeds approximately 0.7. As the ratio increases, the effect on the flow tends to grow dramatically. As shown in this study, a numerical simulation is effective for identifying the stage-discharge relationship of a venturi flume with various types of venturi bodies, including a venturi flume with a circular cone.

• Water Engineering Research
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.269-278
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• 2002

A cross sectional analysis for residential water demand was conducted to help understand and explain the spatial and temporal variations in per capita water use in the rapidly growing city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The analysis was based on data previously collected from May 1983 to June 1984. 195 randomly selected households were distributed to three groups according to house condition, household income level, and social and cultural factors. The generated models using stepwise multiple regression indicated that plot size and number of males, females and children are the most significant independent variables. Although, coefficients of determination achieved for most of the developed models were low (0.2-0.5), the independent variables could still explain a part of the variations fur such a complex social and cultural structure.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.454-458
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• 2007

Nonpoint source (NPS) pollution is a serious problem causing the degradation of soil and water quality. Concentrated overland flow is the primary transport mechanism for a large amount of NPS pollutants from hillslope areas to downslope areas in a watershed. In this study, a soil erosion model, nLS model, to identify transitional overland flow regions (i.e., ephemeral gully head areas) was developed using the kinematic wave overland flow theory. Spatial data, including digital elevation models (DEMs), soil, and landcover, were used in the GIS-based model algorithm. The model was calibrated and validated using gully head locations in a large agricultural watershed, which were identified using 1-m aerial photography. The model performance was better than two previous approaches; the overall accuracy of the nLS model was 72 % to 87 % in one calibration subwatershed and the mean overall accuracy was 75 to 89 % in four validation subwatersheds, showing that the model well predicted potential transitional erosion areas at different watersheds. However, the user accuracy in calibration and validation was still low. To improve the user accuracy and study the effects of DEM resolution, finer resolution DEMs may be preferred because DEM grid is strongly sensitive to estimating model parameters. Information gained from this study can improve assessing soil erosion process due to concentrated overland flow as well as analyze the effect of microtopographic landscapes, such as riparian buffer areas, in NPS control.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.190-198
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• 2010

This study was conducted to examine the effects of dams on benthic macroinvertebrate communities in Korean streams and rivers. Four low-head dams and three large dams were studied throughout South Korea. Sampling was taken at immediately upper (impoundment), lower (riffle area), and control (riffle area) sites from the dams during 2004-2007. The upper sites, of which substrate heterogeneity and velocity were relatively low, showed a lower degree of species richness, density, and diversity indices, which is very different from the lower and control sites. Heavily polluted streams showed a lesser degree of community differences between the upper and lower sites. In the large dams, the upper and lower sites showed very low values of species diversity indices and very high values of dominance indices compared to the control sites. In the low-head dams, however, the difference of degree of the values was relatively smaller. Compositions of the functional feeding groups and the habitat orientation groups were relatively simpler at the upper sites than at the lower sites and the degree of difference was greater in the large dams. Species richness and community indices of benthic macroinvertebrates were more significantly affected by habitat characteristics than water quality at the upper sites; however, those were more significantly related with water quality at the lower sites. In conclusion, large and low-head dams could simplify stream habitats particularly at the upper sites (impoundment), and they negatively affected on the benthic macroinvertebrate communities inhabited the habitats. The impact was larger in the large dams than in the low-head dams.