Archimedes Screw Turbine Modeling using FLOW3D and Investigating Blade Number Effect on its Performance

Due to fossil fuel limitations, the application of small-scale renewable energies has been considered. Recently, the utilization of Archimedes screw turbines, as an emerging turbine, are being increased for converting the potential and kinetic energies of water to a mechanical one. In this research, the performance of Archimedes Screw Turbine (AST) was numerically, using Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations, considered in Flow3D to investigate the effect of different blade numbers and rotation speeds. The two equation  model and Volume of Fluid (VOF) method were used to model turbulence and water surface, respectively. The provided model was validated using experimental results. The optimal mesh cells to meshing was determined afterwards. The validation results showed that the numerical model has a good agreement with expetimental one, and a maximum efficiency of 79% was obtained. The results showed that among the investigated options, 2-bladed screw is economically and technically preferable compared to others.