This 3D-printed hydraulic turbine provides energy without blades
Without employing any blades, the transportable hydraulic turbine SETUR from Vortex Hydrokinetics serves as a power source. The water source could be rivers, tidal streams, ocean currents, or even canals.
As reported by Designboom, the turbine, shaped like an atomic bomb, generates energy by forcing the stream to form a vortex and then using that vortex as a source of current. According to the design team, the cost-effective SETUR can be used both independently and as part of a multi-unit hydropower farm.
The portable equipment is lightweight as a result of the 3D-printed bladeless hydraulic turbine. Although SETUR can be installed in industrial outflows, irrigation canals, and dams, it works best in remote and metropolitan places where energy is required, and there is a plentiful water supply for the device to be placed in.
The working principle of the SETUR
The diffusion angle of the gap between the rotor and the stator is essential in generating energy, according to the design team behind SETUR. The rotor can roll around the inner edge of the container because one tip of its stick is fastened. Due to the flow field's instability, vorticity is produced as fluid flows along the rotor, and the fluid begins to rotate.
This idea guides SETUR's construction. The globe, attached to a shaft by the handle, can fit within the box container since it is hollow enough to accommodate it. The globe of the bladeless hydraulic turbine forms a loop when it is submerged in water. The globe speeds up and produces more electricity depending on the water's current. SETUR is available as a 5kW or 500W turbine as of the time this article was published.
Importance of hydro energy
"Hydro energy is currently the biggest commodity of renewable energy. The process of hydrokinetic energy conversion normally implies the utilization of kinetic energy contained in rivers, ocean currents, tidal streams, or man-made waterways for the generation of electricity," says Vortex Hydrokinetics.
"At the same time, however, the traditional hydro-energy in many places around the world is considered to be exhausted, at least in respect of the potential of the bigger energy resources. The accessibility of power energy at relatively low prices pushed to the background its actual externalities. It should be noted; however, that interest in the traditional renewable resource of water is permanent, long-term, and not liable to surges of short-term interest."