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6th International Energy Conference (Astechnova 2021) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 927 (2021) 012029 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/927/1/012029

Numerical study of the effect of penstock slope on the increase

in electric power of micro-hydro system using Computational
Fluid Dynamics

Yoga Satria Putra1,*, Evi Noviani2, Muhardi1, Azrul Azwar3

1
Geophysics Department, FMIPA, Universitas Tanjungpura, Jl. Prof. Hadari Nawawi,
Pontianak, West Kalimantan, 78115.
2
Mathematics Department, FMIPA, Universitas Tanjungpura, Jl. Prof. Hadari Nawawi,
Pontianak, West Kalimantan, 78115.
3
Physics Department, FMIPA, Universitas Tanjungpura, Jl. Prof. Hadari Nawawi,
Pontianak, West Kalimantan, 78115.
*
Corresponding author's e-mail: yogasatriaputra@physics.untan.ac.id

Abstract. Micro-hydropower plants have become one of the alternative solutions to

meet the electricity needs of people in remote villages that the public electricity
company has not reached. However, the performance of a micro-hydro system has to
be continuously developed. This research aims to improve the performance of a
micro-hydro system by examining the effect of the slope of the penstock on the
increase in electrical power. The penstock slope is varied with diverse angles, namely
θ = 50 °, 60 °, 70 °, 80 °, and 90 °. Five simulations of water flow in the penstock for
five slope angles were constructed using the open-source CFD software, i.e.,
OpenFOAM. We calculate the electric power for the five simulations aforementioned.
The calculation results show that the variation of the penstock slope can affect the
increase of the electric power of a micro-hydro system. The highest electric power
occurs at a maximum slope, θ = 90 °.
Keywords: Micro-hydro, Penstock slope, Electric Power, Computational Fluid Dynamic,
OpenFOAM.

1. Introduction
The performance of a micro-hydro system that has been built must be continuously improved so
that it can optimally illuminate communities in remote villages. The way to improve the
performance of a micro-hydro system is to optimize the system itself. A micro-hydro system
consists of several components: dam, penstock, nozzle, turbine, generator, electrical power
storage, and stabilizer. The optimal performance of all these components will have an impact on
increasing the electrical power generated.
Many studies on the optimization of components in the micro-hydro system have been carried
out. Tiwari et al. (2020) have discussed in detail the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
in designing and analyzing the performance of a micro-hydro turbine [1]. This publication has
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Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd 1
6th International Energy Conference (Astechnova 2021) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 927 (2021) 012029 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/927/1/012029

shown that the CFD approach can be applied in the study of optimizing one of the components of
a micro-hydro system, namely the turbine. Furthermore, CFD has also been used by Wardhana et
al. (2019) in studying changes in the number and shape of the turbine blades [2]. The dimensions
of the turbine blades affect the efficiency of the turbine in generating electricity. Then, Tafrant
and Faizal (2016) have tested the effect of water flow on the performance of the Achard turbine,
which is a type of micro-hydro turbine with a vertical propeller axis that can be used for low head
water flow. This article concludes that an increase in current velocity can increase the Achard
turbine blades [3]. Furthermore, Alexander and Giddens (2008) have analyzed penstock
optimization in a low head micro-hydro system. The author has calculated the electrical power
generated by entering the parameters of the flow rate and penstock slope parameters, which is the
ratio of the height of the penstock inlet to the length of the penstock. The results of this study
indicate that the slope of a penstock can affect changes in the electrical power of a micro-hydro
system [4]. Concerning previous research, this article examines numerically the effect of penstock
slope variations on increasing the electrical power produced by a micro-hydro system. Five
simulations of water flow in a penstock with five variations of the slope have been built using the
CFD approach with the assist of open-source software, OpenFOAM. Finally, using data from the
built simulation, electric power is calculated and analyzed based on variations in the penstock
slope.

2. Methodology
In this paper, 2D numerical simulation for water flow in penstock has been generated using open-
source CFD software, OpenFOAM, version 6.0. The turbulent model applied in each simulation is
Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) type k-Epsilon with interFoam solver in OpenFOAM.
Grid generation in the computational domain is done using blockMesh, which is one of the most basic
mesh generators in OpenFOAM. Calculations were performed on a Linux-based Operating System:
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. An open-source application, Paraview 5.1.2, has been used to analyze and
visualize the results of calculations using OpenFOAM. Meanwhile, to display data in graphical form, a
free interactive graphics program based on the command-line interface (CLI) has been used, namely
Gnuplot 5.0.

Turbine

Figure 1. Computational domain of water flow simulation in the penstock.

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6th International Energy Conference (Astechnova 2021) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 927 (2021) 012029 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/927/1/012029

2.1. Computational domain

The computational domain is constructed as in figure 1 by setting the grid size and the Neumann and
Dirichlet boundary conditions in the blockMeshDict file in OpenFOAM. The computational domain
only covers water flow at the inlet, tank, penstock, and outlet and has not specifically assessed the
turbine's performance. We assume water from the dam enters a water tank with a height Ht = 1.4 m
and a diameter D = 1.05 m. The initial flow rate of water flowing in the inlet pipe with diameter d =
0.2 m is Q = 0.16 m3/s. Effective head measured from the bottom is Hb = 5 m. The length of the
horizontal penstock is Lph = 10 m, while the length of the inclined penstock Lps is calculated based on
the slope angle using trigonometric concepts. The total penstock length is ��� = Lph + Lps. The
diameter of the penstock is fixed for each simulation with varying, namely d = 0.2 m. The analysis
emphasizes only the flow of water that has passed through the penstock pipe, as shown in the box with
the dotted line in figure 1.

2.2. Flow model

The flow model applied in each simulation follows the continuity and momentum equations as stated
in the following equation:
���
���
= 0, (1)
��� �� 1 �� 1 ����
��
+ �� ��� =− � �� + � �� , (2)
� � �

where u, �, �, and ��� are velocity vector (m/s), fluid density (kg/m3), pressure (Pa), and stress tensor
that depends linearly on the rate of the strain tensor ��� respectively. The ��� and ��� could be expressed
as:
1 ��� ���
��� =− ���� + 2���� and ��� = ���
+ , (3)
2 ���

with � is dynamic viscosity (Ns/m2). The simulation in this study uses the Reynolds-averaged Navier-
Stokes (RANS) k-Epsilon turbulent model in OpenFOAM. The RANS solves the Navier-Stokes
equation by averaging time. The solution of the RANS method will describe the main properties of
turbulent flow. The RANS time averaging of velocity u can be expressed by:
1 �+�
� � =� �
� �, � ��, (4)
with T is a proper time interval. With the RANS turbulent model, the Reynolds decomposition of
velocity gives the time-averaged Navier-Stokes equation, namely:
���
���
= 0, (5)
��� ��� 1 �� 1 ���� ���� �
��
+ �� �� =− � �� + � �� − ���
, (6)
� � �
where ��� � =− �'� �'� is the flow fluctuation term. The type of RANS turbulent model applied in this
simulation is k-Epsilon (� − �). The approach taken to obtain the two new unknowns, � − �, is to use
the following equation:

�� �� � ��
��
+ �� �� = �� ���� �� + �� �2 − �, (7)
� � �
2
�� �� � �� ��1 ��� �−��2 �2
��
+ �� �� = �� ���� �� + �
, (8)
� � �

where ��1 = 1.44, ��2 = 1.92, and the mean rate of strain tensor � = 2��� ��� . The flow model with
the Navier-Stokes equation and the k-Epsilon RANS turbulent model was then applied in the open-
source software OpenFOAM to simulate water flow in the penstock pipe.

3
6th International Energy Conference (Astechnova 2021) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 927 (2021) 012029 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/927/1/012029

2.3. Analysis of water flow in the penstock

The simulation of water flow in the penstock needs to be analyzed in more detail so that the
calculation of the electric power generated by the influence of penstock slope variations becomes
correct. Some of the analyses carried out are the analysis of grid size, entrance length, and loss
coefficient.
Grid size analysis was carried out to ensure that the simulations built could produce the correct
calculation for velocity distribution profile. For this analysis, five simulations with five different grid
sizes were built. Furthermore, the flow velocity profile in the pipe is plotted for each simulation. The
velocity profile of the simulation results is compared with the velocity profile of the analytical solution
power-law velocity � for turbulent flow in a pipe, which is expressed by [5]:
� 1/�
� � = �� 1 − � (9)

with �� , �, and � are the centerline velocity (m/s), local, and pipe radius (m). The coefficient � is the
value associated with the curvature of the velocity profile.
Determination of the entrance length is carried out to ensure the position of the penstock elbow is
placed through this region. The goal is that the water that enters the penstock elbow is in a fully
developed flow condition. This analysis is done by calculating the entrance length �� using the
following equation [6]:
�� = 0.693��1/4� (10)
with d is the diameter of the penstock, and Re is the Reynolds number which is a function of the pipe
diameter, the average velocity of water in the pipe, and the kinematic viscosity of the fluid.
Furthermore, the calculation of �� using equation (10) will be compared with the water velocity profile
at different x positions.

2.4. Analysis of electric power of micro-hydro

Before calculating the electrical power generated from a micro-hydro system, it is necessary to
analyze the energy loss due to the influence of the penstock slope. Losses due to pipe system
components are given in terms of loss coefficients �� . Calculation of �� is done using the following
equation:
ℎ� � ����2
�� = ����2
with ℎ� = � � 2�
(11)
2�

where ���� , ℎ� , and � are the average velocity (m/s), head loss, and gravity acceleration (m/s2). Head
loss is a function of the friction factor �, total pipe length �, pipe diameter �, average velocity ���� ,
and gravity acceleration �, as shown in equation (11). The friction factor � can be determined using
the Moody chart.
Finally, based on five simulations of the flowing water for varying penstock slopes, the electric
power of micro-hydro system � (Watt) is calculated using the following equation:
� = ���� �� (12)
where �, �, �� , �, and � are water density (kg/m ), gravity acceleration (m/s ), head height measured
3 2

from the base (m), discharge (m3/s), and efficiency of the turbine (%). Since turbine efficiency has not
been discussed in this article, we assume that the turbine efficiency is equal to 50%.

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6th International Energy Conference (Astechnova 2021) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 927 (2021) 012029 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/927/1/012029

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Validation Study

The first step is to determine whether the simulation that has been built has applied the appropriate
numerical parameters. For this purpose, five simulations of water flow in a pipe with a diameter of d =
0.2 m and a horizontal length of L = 20 m with variations in grid size ∆� = ∆� = 0.01 m, 0.008 m,
0.006 m, 0.004 m, and 0.002 m. The flow velocity profile at x = 10 m was plotted for five simulations
with five different grid sizes. The five flow velocity profiles are compared with the velocity profiles of
the power-law analytical solution in equation (9). The velocity profile trend of the simulation results
shows similarities to the analytical velocity profile, as shown in figure 2. The highest correlation value
and the smallest error are generated from the simulation using a grid size of ∆� = ∆� = 0.002 m with
the respective values R = 0.9998 and MSE = 0.0085. Based on this analysis, a simulation of water
flow in the penstock was built by applying a grid size ∆� = ∆� = 0.002 m.

Figure 2. Comparison graph of flow velocity profiles from power-law

analytical solutions and simulation results with five grid size variations.

Entrance length �� has been calculated using equation (10). For a pipe with a diameter of d = 0.2 m
and water flow rate � = 0.74 m3/s, the value of �� = 6.45 m is obtained. Next, we check this entrance
region in the simulation that has been built by observing the velocity profile formed at different x
positions. The velocity profile of the water flow has been plotted at 21 x-positions on a 20 m long pipe,
as shown in figure 3. The velocity profile curve in the entrance region has a flattened shape at the
center of the pipe diameter. After passing through this region, the flow will be fully developed with a
maximum velocity in the middle of the pipe diameter. Based on the velocity profile plotted in figure 3,
we observe that the velocity profile curve still looks flat at x = 6 m, while at x > 6 m, the velocity
profile curve has formed a fully developed flow with one maximum velocity in the middle of the pipe
diameter. We also find that the maximum velocity is greatest at the position x = 10 m. So, the
horizontal length of the penstock pipe is determined to be equal to x = 10 m which is also the location
of the penstock elbow.

5
6th International Energy Conference (Astechnova 2021) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 927 (2021) 012029 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/927/1/012029

Figure 3. Graph of the velocity profile of water flow at 21 x positions

in a 20 m long pipe.

3.2. Electric power with penstock slope variations

Five simulations of water flow in a micro-hydro system have been built using a fluid dynamics
computational approach with the open-source software OpenFOAM. The water velocity field in the
penstock is shown in figure 4. The geometry of the computational domain is made with a water tank
that holds water to flow into the penstock pipe.

Figure 4. The velocity field of the water flows in the penstock pipe
with slope � = 50� , 60� , 70� , 80� , and 90� .

Furthermore, the energy loss is analyzed by calculating the loss coefficient �� using equation (11).
For the calculation of �� , data on the total length of the penstock pipe � and the average velocity of
water flow ���� are needed from each simulation. The values of � and ���� are measured directly from
the five simulations that have been built. The �� value is calculated for each simulation. Figure 5
shows the inverse relationship between � and �� . The largest �� value is generated from the
simulation with the penstock slope � = 50� . This is because the value of � on the penstock with a
slope of � = 50� is the longest compared to the other. On the other hand, the penstock slope with � =
90� has resulted in the smallest �� value, which is 0.58. This shows that the penstock slope with � =
90� can reduce energy loss in a micro-hydro system.

6
6th International Energy Conference (Astechnova 2021) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 927 (2021) 012029 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/927/1/012029

Figure 5. The graph of the relationship between the penstock slope �

and the loss coefficient �� .

Finally, the electric power of micro-hydro system � is calculated using equation (12). It is
necessary to know the flow rate � in each simulation. The value of � has been calculated using the
mean water velocity ���� , which was measured directly in five simulations with different penstock
slopes. The value of ���� , � , and � with head height H = 5.1 m for five simulations have been
obtained, as shown in table 1.
Table 1. The calculation results of electric power � with penstock slope variation.

� (°) ���� (m/s) � (m3/s) � (Watt)

50 2.84 0.0891 2230.78

60 3.05 0.0957 2395.73
70 3.18 0.0999 2497.85
80 3.20 0.1005 2513.56
90 3.23 0.1014 2537.12

Furthermore, the relationship between � and � is plotted in a graph as shown in figure 6. From
table 1 and figure 6, it can be seen that the penstock slope can affect the amount of electrical power
generated. By adjusting the tilt angle � = 90� will increase the electrical power of a micro-hydro
system. A smaller penstock slope (� = 50� ) can reduce the electrical power generated. This reduction
is also due to the large value of energy loss on the slope � = 50� . The value of this energy loss is
influenced by the total length of the penstock pipe � . When the penstock slope gets smaller, the
penstock length of Lps increases. This will make the value of � bigger. A large value of � will have an
impact on increasing the value of the loss coefficient �� . Therefore, adjusting the slope of penstock
with � = 90� can reduce the energy loss in the micro-hydro system.

7
6th International Energy Conference (Astechnova 2021) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 927 (2021) 012029 doi:10.1088/1755-1315/927/1/012029

Figure 6. The graph of the relationship between penstock slope �

and electric power of micro-hydro system P.

4. Conclusions
The simulation of water flow in a micro-hydro system has been successfully built with a
computational fluid dynamics approach using the open-source software OpenFOAM. The turbulence
problem in the system is solved by applying the RANS k-Epsilon turbulent model. The velocity profile
of the water in the penstock pipe has followed the trend of the analytical solution of the power-law
equation for turbulent flow in the pipe. Calculation of micro-hydroelectric power P was carried out for
five simulations with varying penstock slopes � . The largest electric power is generated from the
simulation that applies � = 90� . By applying the angle � = 90� will reduce the energy loss in the
penstock pipe. Loss energy can be determined by calculating the loss coefficient �� . This �� value is
influenced by the total length of the penstock �. The longer �, the larger �� will be. Construction of a
penstock that applies � = 50� will increase �� and have an impact on decreasing the electric power P.
A study that emphasizes the variation of � in micro-hydro systems on changes in electric power needs
to be carried out in the future.

Acknowledgment
This paper is based on Penelitian Inovasi Untan (PINOV), which has been funded by the DIPA
UNTAN grant for the 2021 fiscal year. The computations were done at the Geophysics and GIS
Laboratory, Geophysics Study Program, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas
Tanjungpura.

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