Abstract
This paper presents a parametric study of the multistorey hydro-powered pump, known as ‘Bunyip’, which has demonstrated significant potential in contributing to rural regions. The study is aimed at understanding the underlying physics of the system and ways to enhance its hydraulic performance. A transient three-dimensional model using the commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tool Ansys-Fluent is utilized to gain insights into its fundamental flow mechanics, operational efficiency, standard capacity, and relative delivery. The investigation involves an initial assessment of performance for three Bunyip devices based on manufacturing data. A parametric analysis is conducted for the dataset generated through meticulous application and numerical modelling. The CFD results are validated against experimental data. Three main design configurations are considered, and 58 sets of varied input parameters are examined. The best design configuration is evaluated against five cases of conventional hydro-power pump systems. The results indicate that a smaller diameter of the pressure chamber and a higher supply head lead to higher pressure, achieving a target head of 3 m with 15% efficiency and a flowrate of 11.82 L/min.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 147 |
| Number of pages | 26 |
| Journal | Inventions |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 17 Nov 2023 |
Bibliographical note
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).Keywords
- clean energy
- hydraulic pump
- modelling
- renewable energy
- sustainable propulsion
