Abstract
For the case of high head and critical low flow rate range of micro hydropower resources, it requires very low specific speed turbines which are lower than conventional impulse turbine's specific speed. In order to satisfy the request for very low specific speed turbine with high efficiency, a new positive displacement turbine is developed. The performance characteristics of the new turbine is tested and compared with a conventional impulse turbine, which is used for automatic water faucet system. The purpose of present study is to develop an high performance turbine that can be used to extract micro hydropower potential of a water supply system. The test results show that the positive displacement turbine is much more efficient than the conventional turbine and it can sustain high efficiency under the wide range of operating conditions. The pressure pulsations at the inlet and outlet of the positive displacement turbine can be considerably minimized by using simple pressure damper.
