Development of blade element momentum (BEM) method for hydropower

Abstract The BEM method is extensively used for analyzing the aerodynamic performance of wind turbines and marine propellers. It computationally fast easily implemented while it can give fairly accurate results. Application to predict forces acting on rotor blades a model scale axial shaft-driven Counter-Rotating Pump-Turbine (CRPT) investigated. Some modifications have been proposed adopt classical CRPT machine results are validated against from Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). display that improve loading predicted by BEM. However, improvements more pronounced in pump mode rather than turbine mode.