Investigation of flow behaviour in the nozzle of a Pelton wheel: Effects and analysis of influencing parameters

Geeri S 1 , Kolakoti A 2 , Samuel OD 3 , Abbas M 4 , Aigba PA 3 , Ajimotokan HA 5 Show all authors , Enweremadu CC 6 , Elboughdiri N 7 , Mujtaba MA 8

Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Pragati Engineering College, Surampalem, 533437, India
  • 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Raghu Engineering College, Visakhapatnam, 531162, India
  • 3 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun, P.M.B 1221, Delta State, Nigeria
  • 4 Electrical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Khalid University, Abha, 61421, Saudi Arabia
  • 5 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria
  • 6 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of South Africa, Science Campus, Florida, South Africa
  • 7 Chemical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, University of Ha'il, P.O. Box 2440, Ha'il, 81441, Saudi Arabia
  • 8 Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, New Campus Lahore, Lahore, 54890, Pakistan
Heliyon, 2024 Apr 30;10(8):e28986.
PMID: 38681544 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e28986

Abstract

The performance of a Pelton wheel is influenced by the jet created by the nozzle. Therefore, a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation was proposed. In this study, the significant output parameters (outlet velocity, outlet pressure, and tangential force component) and input parameters (different pressure and spear locations) were examined. In addition, the influencing parameters and their contributing percentages to the performance of the Pelton wheel were calculated using different optimisation techniques such as Taguchi Design of Experiments (DoE), Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), Grey Relational Analysis (GRA) and Criteria Importance Through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC). The effect of input factors on the output response was examined with DoE, and the results show that the inlet pressure had the most significant impact (97.38%, 99.18%, and 97.38%, respectively, for all different spear sites with a 99% confidence level). In terms of preference values, the TOPSIS and GRA results are comparable (best ranks for simulation runs #24 and #25 and least ranks for simulations #2 and #3, respectively). The CRITIC results for the pressure parameter are in good agreement with the Taguchi ANOVA analysis. The last spear location (5 mm after the nozzle outlet), with an inlet pressure of 413685 Pa generated the best result when employing the TOPSIS and GRA techniques. The outlet pressure of the nozzle was found to have a significant impact on the flow pattern of the Pelton Wheel based on the analysis of the CRITIC, Taguchi, and CFD results.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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