Rudy Soenoko
A cross flow turbine is a typical turbine used in Indonesia for micro-hydro power plant. It is seems that that there are two major weaknesses to this type of turbine design. The first weakness is the number of blades hit by the water jet on the first level. The water speed output from the first level would result a different direction and will lead the water flow collide one to the other. It will lead a chaotic water jet direction getting into the turbine blade second level. The second weakness is that the water jet stream getting in the first turbine blade was controlled by a guide vane. This water controlling system will lead a flow disruption that the water flow jet direction would always change for each guide blade position. These weaknesses will lead a poor cross flow turbine performance, the turbine efficiency would be very low. The turbine rotation setting would be very difficult during the turbine operation the turbine rotation would not be constant. To improve the performance of the turbine, there are some suggestions for the turbine performance improvements, which are modifying the water flow nozzle construction, optimizing the nozzle position and blades number to be hit by the water jet from the nozzle. Based on the modification suggestions, a new design steps has been made. © Research India Publications.
Brawijaya University, Mechanical Engineering Department, Malang, 615145, Indonesia
