How do blade angle and flow velocity jointly determine power output?
When designing a turbine, two of the most important variables — blade angle and incoming flow velocity — interact nonlinearly to determine electrical output. Testing every combination physically is expensive and time-consuming. The goal was to build a computational tool that maps this relationship across the full operating envelope, making it possible to identify optimal design points before committing to hardware.
Parametric sweep in MATLAB with 3D surface visualization
The simulation sweeps blade angle from 0° to 60° and flow velocity from 0 to 5 m/s, computing electrical power output at each combination using a turbomachinery power model. Results are rendered as a 3D surface plot with a colormap encoding power magnitude — making the shape of the efficiency landscape immediately readable.
At higher flow velocities, the peak output is substantially higher, and the optimal blade angle shifts slightly. The surface makes this relationship visible across the full parameter space at a glance — a result that would take dozens of individual test points to approximate experimentally.
Tied directly to the hydroelectric generator project
This simulation was developed in parallel with the physical generator design. The surface plot informed bucket geometry decisions: the runner blade angle was selected to sit near the efficiency peak for the design flow velocity, rather than being chosen arbitrarily or from rule-of-thumb alone.
This kind of computational pre-validation is standard practice in industrial turbomachinery design — you build the performance map first, then design the hardware to hit the target operating point on that map.
Full operating envelope mapped, design point identified
The simulation outputs a color-mapped 3D surface that communicates the full power landscape in one view. Peak computed output approaches ~17 kW at the highest modeled flow velocities — consistent with the theoretical upper bound for the turbine geometry modeled.
Visualization is engineering communication
A table of numbers would have contained the same information as this surface plot. The surface makes the insight obvious — where the peak is, how steep the falloff is, how the optimal angle shifts with velocity. Building this tool reinforced that visualization isn't decoration; it's how engineers communicate results in a way that leads to decisions.