Author(s): Shubham Sharma; Johannes Djupesland; Chirag Trivedi
Linked Author(s): Chirag Trivedi
Keywords: No Keywords
Abstract: Renewable energy is a clean source of energy which naturally renews itself in a short period of time and is available for repeated use. Hydropower energy is found as an important renewable energy source and crucial due to its flexibility and storage capabilities. A pumped storage hydropower system (PSHS) is a sustainable solution for grid stability due to its flexibility as a large-scale battery. The implementation of an efficient rim-driven truster (RDT), a booster pump, with a reversible pump turbine in PSHS may provide a new direction to its development. Current study proposed a systematic MATLAB-based design approach for the rim-driven truster. The design condition has been fixed with some input parameters, such as rotational speed, outer diameter, and flow rate of the pump. A blade-design methodology is developed by adapting classical axial-flow pump principles to the hubless configuration. The workflow consisted of constructing velocity triangles to generate 1D mean-lines, creating 2D blade sections using NACA derived thickness profiles, and stacking these into complete 3D geometries. Moreover, to obtain a better grasp about the performance of the designed truster, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations have been carried out. The high-fidelity RANS calculation with the SST k-ω turbulence model is used to investigate the inner flow characteristics of the pump. To establish the design methodology, a performance characteristic is developed with various operating points. The design optimisation is also performed for two geometrical parameters, Z (blade number) and t (blade thickness). The blade number is found to influence the head delivery, with six blades producing slightly higher head than seven or eight, although these differences remained within the uncertainty margin. Cavitation trends are observed clearly: thicker blades generated lower local pressures and therefore were more prone to cavitation. Blade number had a smaller effect, but fewer blades generally reduced cavitation risk. Furthermore, an Eulerian-Eulerian framework-based approach is also implemented to examine the pump performance with sand-laden flow.
Year: 2026