Design-develop-test a low head hydraulic turbine using new theory for the standard modular hydropower technology

Hydropower has been considered as a great renewable energy resource for decades and provides enormous clean and renewable energy every year. In terms of generation, hydropower is the primary source of renewable energy in the United States, delivering 48% of total renewable electricity sector generation in 2015, and roughly 62% of total cumulative renewable generation over the past decade (2006-2015). However, recently, the large hydropower project is questioned because of the concerns of the large reservoir, dam, and the water channel on the local environment. Due to the smaller scale, short development time, and low environmental impact, the low-head small hydropower system gains increasing attention from the industrial and academic community. The low-head hydropower has the potential to generate a significant amount of electricity from rivers that traditionally were unsuitable for developing hydraulic power plants and supporting the resiliency of the U.S electricity system. Based on the 2016 Hydropower Vision Report, across the U.S, approximately 65.5GW of new stream-reach hydropower capacities are available. These new stream-reach resources are characterized by low-head, varying flows, and highly valued river functions, including fish preservation, sediment transport, and recreational usage. The development of those resources could be possible only if the technologies for low-head hydropower that balance efficiency, economics, and environmental sustainability were developed. The traditional hydropower design method was limited to the new challenges of the low-head application. Therefore, a new Standard Modular Hydropower Technology (SMH) was proposed by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in 2017. This new concept offers a new perspective for small hydropower technology developments based on the premise that standardization, modularity, and preservation of stream functionality must become essential and fully realized features of next-generation hydropower technologies and project designs, and consists of three major modules: Generation Module, Passage Modules, Foundation Modules. Based on the needs for the new design method suitable for the SMH, this research focuses on developing a new design methodology for the Generation Module, which is a low impact, damless Kaplan turbine system, suitable for the low-head new stream-reach sites application. With extensive numerical simulation results and flexible geometrical configuration methods, the new design methodology can balance the performance, economics, and environmental sustainability and provide new perspectives for the future low-head hydropower system designs and developments.