AFRC-CRAD-1302 Carruthers Wheel: Very Low Head Hydro-Electricity

The design of a new waterwheel to be used for power generation in developing countries was developed. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models of the waterwheel were created and used to investigate its operating principle. The models were also used to validate experimental measurements taken from a prototype of the wheel. It was observed that the efficiency of the proposed system is significantly higher than that of more traditional designs.