Abstract

CEBALLOS ZULUAGA, Jorge Mario; ISAZA MERINO, Cesar Augusto; PATINO ARCILA, Iván David  and  MORALES ROJAS, Andrés David. Comparative analysis of buckets sizing methodologies for Pelton turbines in micro-generation systems. Ing. compet. [online]. 2023, vol.25, n.1, e-21411797.  Epub Dec 30, 2022. ISSN 0123-3033.  https://doi.org/10.25100/iyc.v25i1.11797.

Micro-generation of electricity is an alternative used in areas that are difficult to access and are not connected to the national electricity system. To resolve that limitation, different technologies are used to take advantage of renewable energies, among which the Pelton type turbines stand out, which are distinguished by requiring large waterfalls and small flow rates. For the development and implementation of this electricity generation technology, there are some sizing methodologies, among which the following stand out: the use of parametric curves for the design of the bucket, computational fluid dynamics for the general design of the turbine and the bucket, and other more traditional methodologies that use graphical methods for the design of the bucket; all of these with some deficiencies that do not allow optimal performance under a specific operating condition. This work compares three traditional methodologies for the design of the buckets of Pelton turbines (OLADE, Nechleba and Thake), this to select the most suitable for a specific condition. Therefore, an analysis of the dynamic behavior is made by means of a modal analysis from which we obtain a first criterion, and of the structural static behavior from which we obtain the two remaining criteria, carried out in the finite element software ANSYS. From the results obtained, all the buckets meet two of the three pre-established selection criteria; Nechleba's methodology stands out as it has a better result in the resistance-weight relationship.

Keywords : Bucket; Modal analysis; Micro-generation; Pelton turbine; Sizing methodology; Static structural analysis.

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