Analysis of a Micro Francis Turbine Blade

The main purpose of the turbine is to extract energy into the useful work. The high pressure of the water from the head will be applied to the blade. Long term exposure of this high pressure will lead to the blade metal become fatigue and cause a fracture. The objectives of this study are to obtain the total deformation and stresses that act on the blade. There are few new designs of the blade from to previous studies will be consider. The turbine blade is simulated using the finite element method (FEM) based on the commercial code ANSYS. The result of the datum design is compared with all new designs in order to analyze if the new design is better or vice versa from the datum design. The best design is selected based on the largest percentages difference of the selected design compared to the datum design. Using statistical analysis, paired comparison design is selected to compare between the datum design and the selected design, i.e. do the results have a significant difference. It can be concluded that the new design is better in handling the total deformation, stress and strain.