Analysis of the Effect of Blade Thickness on Propeller Water Turbine Performance Using Computational Fluid Dynamic

One of hydropower on lowest scale namely propeller pico-hydro, the turbine has a light workload so that allows it to be made from polymer with 3D printing manufacturing. The design of the propeller, the concerned the axial load which results in failure. A failure of designing the dimensions of the propeller turbine with polymer materials causes a fracture in the blades. This study aims to analyze the effect of blade thickness on the performance of a propeller water turbine. Data collection this study uses numerical simulation through computational fluid dynamics using SolidWorks Flow Simulation with the blade thickness variable used 1 to 3 mm with a fillet size 1.5 mm. Based on the results, the thickness of the blade affects the value of static torque. At a blade thickness of 2 mm, it shows the most optimal torque value compared to a thickness value below or above 2 mm


INTRODUCTION
The current issue of global warming has underpinned the emergence of the concept of an environmentally building, or green building.To fulfill the green building concept, a building plan must meet the criteria for energy conservation, one of which is water conservation [1].In its application, the form of water conservation can utilize the water systems such as pumping stations, piping systems, and drainage systems as a source of electrical energy on a small scale (Nurdin et al., 2021).The water-energy conversion system into electrical energy in horizontal flow has been widely studied, one of which uses an axial water turbine namely propellertype (Himawanto et al., 2021) with the advantages of high performance, low production cost, easy maintenance compared to other turbine types [4].
In water energy or hydropower on the lowest scale namely pico-hydro (Nurdin et al., 2020), the turbine has a light workload, so that allows it to be made with polymer materials, one of which is Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene or ABS with rapid manufacturing 3D printing technology (Darsono et al., 2021).In the design of the propeller turbine, the most concerned loading is the axial load which has an impact on the blades [7].
Failure when designing the dimensions of the turbine propeller with polymer materials causes a fracture in the blades as shown in Figure 1.In the numerical simulation research conducted by (Darsono et al., 2021), the failure of the blade fracture (with polymer material) can be minimized by increasing the thickness of the blade, this study shows that the thicker the blade, the higher the safety factor value.However, the thicker the propeller blade, the greater the tendency of the blocking effect to occur and potentially reduce the turbine performance.On the other side, the effect of this potential has never been studied before, so based on this, this study provides knowledge about the effect of blade thickness on propeller turbine performance.
This study aims to analyze how the effect of blade thickness on the performance of a propeller water turbine.In addition, this research directly contributes to optimizing the design of the blade thickness and the performance of the air turbine propeller on the pico scale.

RESEARCH METHOD
The basis for designing the propeller

Flow Chart of Study
Based on the description about methods, the stages in this study using numerical flow simulation are shown in Figure 5.In addition to the pressure contour analysis in the water flow, the pressure contour analysis can also be seen on the turbine surface as shown in Figure 8. Figure 8a shows the pressure contour at a blade thickness of 1 mm which is lower than at a thickness of 2 mm (Figure 8b) and 3 mm (Figure 8c).At a thickness of 2 mm the flow of water hitting the turbine is greater than the thickness of 1 mm and it forms a low pressure contour (Figure 8a), this causes the axial force received by the turbine to be greater

Figure 3 .
Figure 3.Meanwhile, the total rig assembly design with a flow system in the pipe refers to numerical simulation research (Darsono et al., 2022) as shown in Figure 4. Data collection in

Figure 7a shows the
Figure 7a shows the contour of the water flow pressure at a blade thickness of 1 mm lower

Table 1 .
Numerical simulation result