The Ministry has supported the following R&D projects in SHP sector:-

The detils of these projects is as follows:

 1)      Hydraulic Turbine R&D Laboratory 

With the support of Ministry and New Renewable Energy Resources Govt. of India, Alternate Hydro Energy Centre (AHEC), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee has established an international-level hydro turbine R&D laboratory as design and validation facility in addition to conducting research in hydro turbines and other hydro mechanical equipment conforming to national and international standards.

The laboratory is able to conduct tests on scaled models of hydraulic turbines, reversible turbines and pumps for weighted average efficiency and turbine output, cavitation performance, pressure pulsation, run away speed, characteristic curves for the turbine quadrant, hydraulic thrust and torque. The laboratory is equipped with state of the art SCADA based automatic control system with first principal based flow measurement, precision pressure transducers and sensors. Laboratory has high performance computing facility of 288 Core with ANSYS-15 software.

The guiding framework for this laboratory is meeting international standards (IEC 60193 and ISO/IEC 17025) requirements. The laboratory has been accredited by National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration (NABL) as per ISO/IEC 17025 for fluid flow testing as well as calibration.

The laboratory have the role of verification/validation of designs and generation of design data, third party test as a neutral laboratory, witness tests on turbines as a neutral agency and testing of all types of reaction turbines except tubular turbine, bulb turbine & pump turbine. Laboratory also carries out validation of designs through CFD technique.

The Laboratory was inaugurated by Hon'ble Union Minister of State for Power and New and Renewable Energy, Govt. of India, Mr. R.K. Singh on April 10, 2018.

https://www.iitr.ac.in/departments/HRE/pages/Labs+Hydraulic_Turbine_R_and_D_Lab.html

2)      Sediment monitoring and abrasion testing laboratory – AHEC, IIT Roorkee 

Hydro-abrasive erosion of hydro-turbine components through sediment-laden river water is one of the most challenging problems in the Himalayan region. To study and mitigate the hydro-abrasive issues in Himalayan region, a laboratory with state of the art instrumentation is established at AHEC, IIT Roorkee with support from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Govt. of India. The laboratory was inaugurated by Hon'ble Union Minister of State for Power and New and Renewable Energy, Govt. of India, Mr. R.K. Singh on April 10, 2018.

The laboratory is equipped with facilities to study suspended sediment flow and its impact on hydropower components such as turbines, penstock etc. The laboratory is being developed a sediment depository for Himalayan region to perform as a knowledge centre to educate and train personnel to handle erosion issues effectively. The development of the laboratory has facilitated design and improvement of sediment settling basins, study of sediment flow dynamics, validation and development of hydro-abrasive erosion models as well as designing turbine blades and other components for less erosion.

 3)      Development of Efficient Cross Flow Turbine for Hilly Region 

In micro-hydro potential sites, cross flow hydro turbine is the suitable alternative to provide the energy due to its low initial cost, easy construction, installation and maintenance. However, cross flow turbine suffers the problem of low performance as compared to conventional hydro turbines. Under the R&D project, an attempt has been made to enhance the cross flow turbine efficiency by improving the flow conditions/direction inside the turbine runner. A guide mechanism having different types of airfoils (Symmetrical and unsymmetrical) has been investigated and the performance in term of efficiency of the modified turbine is compared with the conventional cross flow turbine design. In order to investigate the turbine performance at different operating conditions, numerical simulation (CFD) using commercially available software (ANSYS) was used. Further, the numerical results have been validated with the experimentation carried out in the Hydraulic Measurement Laboratory, Department of Hydro and Renewable Energy, IIT Roorkee.