SolidWorks Animation: Transient NREL Phase-VI Wind Turbine CFD Simulation [Validated]

     10 KW wind turbine CFD simulation using Flow Simulation Premium. Design points: 10 m/s wind speed, rotational velocity 7.5 rad/s.

     The rendered volume shows vorticity (curl of the velocity field). It is colored by dynamic pressure. Low pressure in the center of the helix shows very small wind speed.

     Power from the CFD analysis was 9,854.96 W while the experimental power is 10,000 W, a difference of only 1.45 %, that too by using only 693,141 cells in the mesh.

     Do you want me to make a tutorial about the simulation setup with SolidWorks Flow Simulation Premium?

Canal Turbine Concept

It's a concept I am currently working on, so far I gave made a CAD model (renderings attached) of it in SolidWorks and analyzed it using its built in CFD module.

There are many advantages of canal turbines over wind turbines, prominent one's being:

 

Unidirectional flow

Water flows in one direction in a canal so we don't need pitch and yaw control surfaces. That simplifies the design process and reduces weight.

Constant flow rate

We (humans) control water flow rate through canals and it's almost same all year, so we don't have to worry about blade aero foil design to suit variable/abruptly variable flow rate, that makes design process further straight forward.

Large Electricity potential

Canals are 100s of km long, imagine the electricity potential in the canals. You can put these turbines in irrigation canals and it'll power nearby villages and all the irrigation equipment etc.

Higher Power/Discharge Ratio

Water is ~816 times dense (powerful) than air, so for the same discharge (flow) rate we get potentially 816 times more power. Which means more we can make designs that are lighter, smaller and easier to manage and maintain.

Easy maintenance

Fitted less than ~1 m deep inside the canal and can be retracted for maintenance at ground level, making maintenance very easy or better yet, we can maintain them while canals are being cleaned.