design parameters optimization of micro-hydro archimedean screw for sustainable energy generation

Micro-hydropower systems are sustainable energy resources that has been attained great attention recently. the present research aimed to develop a model for predicting the optimal efficiency of archimedes screw turbines under different conditions using response surface methodology, in which the effect of several independent parameters on a response parameter is investigated. among different geometric and flow parameters, screw’s outer diameter, blade number, inclination angle, rotation speed, available head, and flow were used to define the efficiency of archimedes screw turbine. the well-known buckingham pi theorem was used to describe non-dimensional relationships between independent and response parameters. the desired ranges of dimensionless effective parameters were considered. computational fluid dynamics was employed to determine archimedes screw turbine’s efficiency in the considered ranges. finally, a quadratic prediction model was developed, with r2 of 0.9755 and a maximum p-value of 0.0001. the maximum value of the relative error was 4.75%, and the maximum efficiency was obtained as 83.4% while blade number, inclination angle, dimensionless diameter were 4, 27° and 0.731, respectively. with optimal design of archimedes screw turbines, many locations with small energy could be equipped to the archimedes screw turbine to produce sustainable energy.