Similitude and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Simulation of the Model of a Hydropower System for Generating Clean Electricity from Water Flow

This thesis presents a computational analysis of the performance of the model of a hydropower barge, consisting of 3 pairs of paddle wheels, in generating power from the flow of a river. The barge dimensions used in this research are one-thirtieth scale of the actual barge dimensions.;These new dimensions were used in the simulations to predict the power that can be generated, having carried out similitude between the scaled model and its full scale size. The dimensionless parameters employed in achieving similitude are Strouhal number, power coefficient, and pressure coefficient. The efficiency of the paddle wheel conforms to that obtained from most power turbines. The power generated was improved by the addition of bottom fin under the paddle wheel.;Computational Fluid Dynamics using ANSYS Fluent software was employed to simulate and generate the results. The simulation results generated will be compared to an experimental model that will be performed in the future based on the new scaled dimensions. This will help validate the viability of the paddle wheel, as proposed here, in the generation of power prior to designing the full scale sized barge.