Abstract. Vertical-axis hydrokinetic turbines with fixed pitch blades typically suffer from poor starting torque, low efficiency and shaking due to large fluctuations in both radial and tangential force with azimuth angle. Maximizing the turbine power output can be achieved only if the mechanism of generation of the hydrodynamic force on the blades is clearly identified and tools to design high-performance rotors are developed. This paper describes an initial experimental investigation to understand more of the performance on vertical-axis turbine related to the effect of fixed-pitch and passive variable-pitch application using airfoil NACA 0018. Comparative analysis according to aspects of rotation and tip speed ratios was discussed. Information regarding the changes of foil position in passive variable-pitch during rotation at a limited range of flow velocity variations test was obtained and analyzed.

A promising technology to reduce dependency on fossil fuels is hydrokinetic energy conversion using either turbine and non-turbine technology. Hydrokinetic turbine technology is penalized by low efficiency and lack of selfstarting. This study involved experimental testing and numerical simulation of a novel hydrokinetic turbine design, called a Vertical Axis Hydrokinetic Turbine-Straight-Blade Cascaded (VAHT-SBC). Three configurations of the design were tested. Model 1 had 3 passive-pitch blades, while Model 2 and Model 3 had 6 and 9 blades respectively, where the outer blades were passive-pitch and the others fixed-blade. Both in the experimental test and in the numerical simulation Model 3 outperformed the other two models. The Cp of Model 3 was 0.42, which is very close to the theoretical Cp for VAHTs (0.45). It worked properly at low TSR. A CFD simulation based on the RANS solver was performed to gain supplementary information for performance investigation. This simulation confirmed that the torque changes because of the change in angle of attack as the turbine rotates. Because they have different numbers of blades, each model has different periodical torque fluctuation patterns. This study verified that utilization of cascaded blades and a passive-pitch mechanism is able to improve turbine performance.

In recent years, Wind power generation in Indonesia is no longer a new issue. Indonesia has average velocity from 2 m/s  to 7 m/s. With the characteristic it, Indonesia is suitable for small (10 kW) and medium wind turbine installation (10-100 kW. Based on the monitoring data from meteorological, climatological, and geophysical agency (BMKG), the average wind velocity in Bali is 2 m/s – 5m/s, hence Bali has potential to development and utilization the source for wind turbine installation, There are four stations of BMKG in Bali, which each station is supervise the region. Weibull distribution has been represented on this research to calculate and determine the probability of the each of region to know the availibility of the source. Literally,  Jembrana station has the lowest availability of power available from the district and cities in Bali, with 0-0.2 W/m2, compared with some districts and cities in Bali, with wind density power between 0-2.88 W/m2 and also the KHK station has the highest probabiity of wind velocity than the other regions. Reconstruction design had been done, with basic data from probability in Bali. The result shows that the redesign of wind turbine give an effective power to extract the wind source.

Due to its high energy concentration, hydrokinetic energy from tidal and rivers flow provides great expectation. One of the effective ways to meet the energy production target is to reduce the installation and maintenance effort arranging turbines in such configuration, known as hydrokinetic turbine array. The performance of array configuration is affected by turbine position and rotational direction. This research provides a comprehensive analysis of the effect of turbine rotational direction and position on the array performance. The experimental study and URANS simulation were carried out to gain deeper information. This previous study proposed 3 side-by-side configurations, i.e. Co-rotating” (Co), “counter-rotating-in” (CtI) and “counter-rotating-out” (CtO) and the current study proposed 2 multi-row configurations, i.e. 3T-A and 3T-B. The comprehensive information is provided. Both experimental and numerical study confirmed that the velocity superposition in the interaction zone gives the constructive effect on turbine performance. All site-by-site configurations is able to enhance farm effectiveness. Co configuration is recommended to install in the resource having unpredictable flow direction. However, the CtI is for canal or river since it has better performance. The study for multi-row configuration shows that the downstream turbine has performance decrement due to the bad effect of the upstream turbine wake.

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