The Modeling and Simulation of an Archimedes Spiral Turbine for Use in a Hydrokinetic Energy Conversion System

This paper represents a study on a recently developed turbine, namely an Archimedes spiral turbine, for use as a hydrokinetic turbine in a run-of-the-river configuration. This type of horizontal axis turbine has only been used in the wind power industry, where it shows great potential for extracting wind energy out of urban environments. Since it operates at low speeds with high efficiency, the Archimedes spiral turbine can be an excellent method of harnessing the kinetic energy from small rivers and streams. This turbine was modeled and simulated, the aerodynamic characteristics of the turbine were obtained and the torque and power outputs were analyzed.