A Study of the Effect of Twisted Impeller on the Performance of Resistance Pipeline Turbine

The impeller is the core component of the hydraulic turbine, and its blade shape significantly affects the performance of the hydraulic turbine. To enhance the power generation efficiency of pipeline turbines, a resistance pipeline hydraulic turbine with twisted impeller blades was proposed, and a numerical simulation was used to investigate the influence of twist angle on the impeller’s performance parameters in the water supply pipeline. The study results reveal that: in the case of the blade tip speed ratio of 2 and the pipeline flow velocity of 1.5 m/s, in the nine groups of impellers analysed from 0° to 45°, as the twist angle increases, both efficiency and output power decrease, but the static moment increases to different degrees within 27°, and the impeller with the torsion angle of 10° can increase the static moment by 22.37% while keeping the head loss, output power and efficiency basically unchanged. Increasing the static output moment of the impeller by twisting the impeller can improve the starting efficiency of the impeller, and the findings of this study can serve as a reference for optimizing the resistance pipeline turbine impeller design.